The End of Liberty
by InfamousSharo
Summary: Niko awakes from a coma...to find Liberty City in ruins and hordes of lunatic killers loose on the devastated streets. With no idea what has happened, he sets out to find his family and friends, risking life and limb, in hope that they are still alive.
1. Chapter 1: Nightmare Hospital

_**Greetings, fellow readers and writers of fanfiction!**_

Ever since playing GTA 4, I've wanted to do a 'zombie apocalypse' story in the Liberty City setting and with Everyone's Favorite Hitman thrust in the middle of it. I know what you're thinking: _Oh, God help me, not another one of** these** stories!(_I'm sure one or two have been done already) Hear me out. Due to the recent rise in zombie popularity, I decided to try something different, something that, hopefully, hasn't been done yet. The apocalypse is still on, but the threat ain't the living dead. It's something worse.

**Warnings:**

Swearing: There will be an abundant supply of it. This is a GTA story, after all; cussing is like a rule if you're writing one.

Violence: Yeah, another rule. Expect a lot of shooting, stabbing, blood and gore, and death. You know, all the entertaining stuff.

Sex, Drugs, and Possibly Rock 'n Roll: I'm sure this stuff will pop up sooner or later. But not in any graphic detail.

Offense/Sensitive Subjects: Stuff like rape, gay bashing, racism, etc. Keep in mind that these things do **NOT** reflect on this author's beliefs; I condone none of it.

My writing style: Some writers plan out their entire story before they start writing it. I have a general plot idea, and plan it out as I write. It's more fun that way. Of course, this style has greater risk of story stagnation. Let's hope that doesn't happen here, as I like this idea I have and I think you might enjoy it, too. And, _oh, my goodness gracious_, is Niko ever fun to write.

Updates: They will be sporadic. Perhaps every other day or once a week, depending on my schedule and if that vile thing known as Writer's Block doesn't get in my way.

Finally! **The disclaimer**: I don't own shit. Well, except a few original characters. So, don't touch or [insert long-winded, empty threat].

Now off you go! And leave a review before you leave. Writers thrive on constructive criticism(this includes mistakes on grammar and spelling; give it to me Nazi-style, if you want)...and compliments. Compliments are always good. :)

Enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter One: Nightmare Hospital**

* * *

**P**olystyrene ceiling tiles. They were the first thing to grace Niko's vision when he opened his eyes.

He was disoriented, his mind was a labyrinth of confusion; he had no idea where he was and he was in a great amount of pain. His head was pounding like a bass drum, its deepest pulse eminating from the left side, above his temple.

He told his body to move from its supine position, but it refused to cooperate. His muscles were weak and useless and aching; he felt like he'd been hit by a freight train.

Deep hazel eyes scanned the environment; the whitewashed walls hung with serene landscape paintings, the window with its drawn, eggshell-white curtains, and the medical equipment to the right.

Medical equipment...

Panic twisted his gut and deeper confusion bent his brow. So, he was in a hospital. How? Why? What had happened that had landed him here? He couldn't remember, no matter how deep he searched his memory banks. There was a gap, time missing. The last thing he could recall was sitting at a bar, having a drink with his cousin, then nothing. And now this.

Niko glanced down at himself, at the white hospital gown that covered him, at the tube stuck in his arm and the little wires coming out of the right sleeve of the gown, and the hospital bracelet that adorned his left wrist.

_What happened to me?_

He tried to give voice, to call out to anyone who would hear him, but the sounds were trapped in his throat. He could do nothing but lie there, in all his confusion and pain, and wait until someone came to him with answers and relief.

He listened for life, but there was none; there were no sounds where sounds ought to be. The monitor to his right didn't emit the constant, rhythmic beep of his pulse, and for one horrific moment, Niko thought he might be dead and in some bizarre limbo. Then he realized it wasn't emitting a beep because it wasn't on; the digital screen that would have read out his vitals was black. Another look around, and he saw that no light anywhere in the room was on, either.

No electricity? That wasn't right.

Niko lifted a weak hand to his throbbing head and felt cloth under his fingers. It was a bandage. That explained why he was there and couldn't remember much, but it didn't explain what was going on, why everything in his room had lost power.

He tried sitting up again, summoning all the strength he could muster, but all he could accomplish was a half-rise from his position, a move that speared white-hot pain up his right side and took breath and all that strength from him. He could not do that again to save his life.

With nothing more he could do to get himself to move, to find out what was going on, to find out what had happened to him, he closed his eyes and gave in to sleep.

* * *

Consciousness came with the sound of a distant voice.

Niko hoped to not see that hospital room surrounding him when he opened his eyes, hoped it had only been some weird dream before, but those hopes were dashed. He was still there in that sterile, dull room, still confused and in pain.

The voice came again. "Hello? Anyone here?" A woman's voice, one he didn't recognize, not that he had really expected to.

He tried to move from his supine state again, and found some success this time. As Niko pushed himself up on trembling arms, grimacing at the pain in his side, the room whirled and took his stomach. He leaned over the right side of his bed, certain he was going to vomit. Nothing came up. He stayed in that position for a few moments, waiting for the vertigo to subside and his stomach to settle, and he heard the woman's voice again, closer.

"Is anyone here?"

He swallowed and found his mouth and throat as dry as the Sahara, but he tried to give voice nonetheless, "In here." It was a weak whisper he could hardly hear himself, so he tried again, louder and slower, "_In here_."

There was no response. Maybe there wasn't a woman; maybe he was hearing things, a symptom of his head injury.

Niko pulled himself up into a sitting position again and moved his legs over the side of the bed, the tile floor like ice under his bare feet. He bowed his head, pressing the heels of his palms into his temples as the vertigo took him for a spin again.

When the dizziness faded enough, Niko pulled off the electrodes attached to him, yanked out the IV needle and tube from his arm, then tried to stand from the bed. No sooner had he put weight on his legs, and they gave out under him. He groped for the edge of the bed to keep from falling, missed, and hit the hard, cold floor with a groan. How the hell he was going to get up now, he didn't know. He was still too frail. Perhaps he should've remained abed until he had the strength.

He lie there on the floor for some moments, staring up at the ceiling. The sight of those ugly white tiles was starting to disgust him. He heard the door to his room open and turned his head to look across the empty space under his bed. A pair of bare feet stood in the threshold.

So he wasn't hearing things. Well, he supposed that was a good sign.

"Anyone in here?"

"Down here," Niko replied, his voice hoarse and strained.

The feet moved forward, then a face appeared above him. A woman's pretty but exhausted and concerned face, surrounded by a scraggly mess of auburn hair. She was a patient, as she was dressed in a hospital gown and had a similar injury to his own; there was a white bandage wrapped across her forehead.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

_Do I look okay?_ he thought, but kept it to himself. "Not really."

The woman moved to stand in front of him, then leaned over, extending her hand to help him up.

Niko took whatever help he could get. Her hand was small and cold and callused in his as she tried to get him to his feet. Since they were both in bad condition, it took a lot of tries and effort, but eventually, and with the aid of the bed, Niko was able to get upright. He sat on the edge of the mattress to recover while the woman studied him for a moment.

"I thought I was the only one left," she said.

Niko gave her a weird look. "What do you mean?"

The woman looked around the room, as if in that instant she had no idea where she was, then she looked back at him, her eyes wide. He noticed they were greyish green, and full of fear and confusion.

"There's no one," she told him. "No one left alive."

His brow furrowed. "What?"

"I don't know. There's bodies..a few of them, in the hallways..." She shook her head, swallowing hard. "Ripped apart. I've..I've never seen anything like that. And there's no one else around. No doctors or nurses. A few patients were moved into one room, but they're dead in their beds. It looks and smells like they've been dead for a while, but they weren't torn apart."

"Show me." He demanded it, because at the moment, he thought she was nuts; he would only believe what she was saying when he saw it for himself.

Niko stood from the bed, keeping a hand on the edge for a moment to steady himself. The woman moved to help him, but he brushed her away. She was in no condition to support him and he particularly didn't want them both to end up on the floor.

Staggering, he made his way toward the door, the woman trailing behind him.

The moment Niko opened it, his senses came under assault. There was a horrible, sour odor of death and blood that he could almost taste and about fifty feet from his room, there was a headless body laying on the floor of the corridor in a pool of dark blood. It wore a doctor's white coat. The head was further down the hallway, and it seemed it wasn't the only thing the expired doctor had lost. The right arm was gone, too. The appendage lay near a wall splattered with blood, as if the arm had been thrown against it.

"_What the fuck_?" said Niko, hearing his own words as if they had come from someone else.

"It gets worse," the woman said from behind him, her tone grim. "Much worse."

They moved up the silent, empty hall, Niko keeping close to the wall for support. They came to a T-section and the woman pointed to the corridor that led off to the left. "There."

When they turned the corner, Niko's stomach was taken from him for a second time and he had to fight off an urge to gag. Of all the horrible shit he'd seen in life, this easily made the top five.

It looked like a grenade had gone off. In the midst of the corridor, the walls and floor were painted in gore, and there were numerous bodies and body parts strewn about. Every last one of them, every body he saw was eviscerated and dismembered.

"My God," he breathed, leaning against the wall. "Who could've done this?"

"Who, or _what_?" the woman said.

Niko looked at her and she shrugged, her eyes moving to the gory mess. "They look like they were ripped apart by animals."

"Animals?" he replied with a dubiously quirked brow. "In a hospital?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "What I do know is that no human could've done this."

"What the hell is going on here?" Niko demanded of no one in particular.

"I'm not sure I even want to know, but it seems we're the only ones who survived it."

* * *

Back at his room, Niko found his medical chart sitting in a clear, plastic box bolted to the door. While there were no answers to what had happened in the hospital, he could at least find out the extent of his injuries and how long he'd been staying there.

He sat on the edge of the bed and looked over the papers on the clipboard. He'd suffered a traumatic head injury and had undergone surgery to relieve swelling in his brain. He also had a few fractured ribs, some minor cuts and bruises, and had apparently just awoken from a coma. Flipping through the rest of the papers, he found when he had been admitted to the hospital and why. On the fourth of November, he had gotten in a car wreck.

He knew the what, the why, and the when. Now Niko needed to find out how long. He had no idea what day it was. Had he been in the hospital a few days? A few weeks? Longer?

The door to the room opened and he looked up as the woman entered. She had gone off to locate a cellphone to inform the authorities about what had happened at the hospital, and it seemed she had succeeded in finding one.

"What day is it?" he asked her.

"Um...this phone says it's November eleventh. And it's 3:47 PM."

"Shit. I've been unconscious for a week."

The woman looked at him, her brow creasing. "What happened to you?"

"According to this chart, head injury and broken ribs; I was in a car accident. I don't remember any of it."

"I'm no doctor, but sometimes there's retrograde amnesia with head injuries. I was shot, once in the shoulder and once in the head," she told him. "I don't remember any of it, either."

Niko stared at her in surprise. "Shot in the head? How the hell are you alive?"

She shrugged as she sat down in a chair by the curtained window. "Luck. I was shot in the forehead. I guess from a good distance because the bullet didn't lodge deep enough to do any major damage. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. The docs removed it two weeks ago, according to my chart. I've been in a coma since then. Woke up last night."

"Shit." He thought that one word did a good job summing up both their situations.

The woman smiled a little. "My dad warned me about becoming a cop. Maybe I should've listened."

"You're a cop?" _Fantastic_, he thought. Of all the people in the world for him, a former criminal, to cross paths with like this, it just had to be a damn cop. The universe had never really liked him much.

The woman nodded. "Sex crimes detail, working my way up to detective. The last thing I remember was trying to make an arrest on a known pedophile with a parole violation. I can recall knocking on his front door, then there's nothing."

"Last thing I remember is getting drunk with my cousin. I guess I thought it was a good idea to drive under the influence. Looks like we are both good at making bad decisions."

"You more than I," she said, looking back down at the cellphone in her hand. She frowned. "No service. Tower's probably down or something." She arose from the chair and pushed the window curtains open to look out, and what she saw outside made her scream. She clapped a hand over her mouth and backpedaled, her eyes so wide they almost took up her face.

Niko was on his feet, alarmed. "What is wrong with you?"

The woman pointed a shaky finger at the window, unable to form words. Niko came up behind the startled woman and found it difficult to believe what he was looking at through the window. His mouth dropped open in shock. "Holy fucking God."

They were up on a high floor of the hospital, and this gave him a good view of Algonquin...what was left of it. It was in smoking ruins. Most of the imposing skyscrapers had been resorted to a crumbled waste of steel and stone, others were just jagged remnants, clawing at the sky as if begging God for mercy. Pillars of smoke swirled up out of a few of these, darkening the puffy clouds scuttling overhead. Some of the buildings lower to the ground had either been smashed beyond recognition or had portions of them caved in, likely victims of falling debris from the skyscapers. The snaking form of the elevated subway system was collapsed in places. On the streets surrounding the hospital, Niko saw no movement whatsoever. There were tons of cars, but they were all still, abandoned. There were no people, no signs of life, nothing.

"What happened?" the woman asked, her voice small and strained.

Niko tore his eyes away from the devastation long enough to glance at her where she was now sitting on the bed. Her face was a mask of horror and there were tears in her grey-green eyes.

"What happened?" she asked again, as if he had the answer.

Niko looked back out at the destroyed city. "War," he inferred. He'd experienced enough of it to know its devastation.

* * *

The woman was hysterical. For the past twenty minutes she had done nothing but sit there on the edge of his hospital bed, alternating from blubbering incoherently to raving like a lunatic.

_This is no way for a cop to act_, Niko thought. They were supposed to be calm in situations like this. He was certain her mind had snapped, and he wasn't really helping the matter. He dealt with shock on this level in the same way he dealt with most everything else, with blatant anger. So it was no small wonder that when her hysteria began to get on his nerves, he'd yelled at her to shut the fuck up and threatened to shut her up himself if she didn't comply. That only made the woman more hysterical. If he had known anything about medicine, he would've gone off to find a sedative to put her out of her misery for a while.

The woman was now curled up on the bed, blubbering in a manner that didn't annoy him as much. Niko still stood at the window, staring out at the destruction and wondering what all of it meant, why it had happened, who was behind it, and most importantly, where his family was and if they were okay. Roman, Mallorie, and their four-year-old daughter Katie were now living in a nice little house in an upscale Broker neighborhood. Had this happened there, too? Were they still alive? He intended to find out; he _had_ to find out.

He turned and went to the crying woman. "You are not helping yourself by acting like this. Get it together."

"It's all gone..." she muttered through her sobs. "_Gone_. How? Why?"

Niko grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up into a sitting position. She looked at him, right in his eyes, and asked in a helpless voice, "Who would do something like this?" Then more sharply, as if she were accusing him for all of it, "_Who would do something like this_!?"

"Calm down."

"Look out there!" she shouted at him, as if he hadn't already seen the destruction for himself. "Look what's happened! It's all gone! Destroyed! People are likely dead! What're we going to do!?" She grabbed him, shook him hard enough to rattle his previously rattled brains. "Who would do this?!"

Niko slapped her to knock some sense into her and because he didn't appreciate being shaken like a maraca when his head was already pounding like a drum. "Calm the fuck down!"

A hand on her stinging cheek, the woman stared at him with wide eyes that were now glacial rather than near madness. But it seemed some kind of sense had finally gotten through. "You hit me..."

"You needed to be hit."

Her eyes narrowed, then with a voice as polar as Antarctica, she started to say, "If you ever lay your hand on me-

"I don't make a habit of striking women," Niko cut her off. "Unless they give me a reason to. I hardly even touched you."

"Oh, really?" she replied. "I must be imagining all this pain in my face, then."

Her cheek was a bit red when she lowered her hand from it. He hadn't realized he'd slapped her that hard.

Niko sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry. Satisfied?"

"No."

He rolled his eyes. "Wonderful. Look, I'm getting out of this hospital. So, you have two choices, lady. You can come with me or you can stay here."

The woman frowned. "I really don't think that's a good idea in our condition. We don't know if the people or person who did this is still out there, on the streets. If they try to attack us or something, we're hardly in any position to defend ourselves."

Niko shrugged. "I don't really have a choice. My family is out there, too, and I need to find them. Ain't there someone out there you are worried about, too?"

The woman looked away, her expression turning impassive. "I don't...no, there's no one."

"Come on, there must be someone," he pressed, not buying it. "A friend or a colleague, if not family."

Her eyes found his face, winter in their depths. "There isn't anyone, all right? So, drop it!"

"Fine," he snapped back. "You don't have to be a fucking bitch about it."

Niko marched to the door(as much as anyone in his poor physical condition could march) and yanked the door open, casting a smoldering look back at the woman. "Are you coming or not? I'm not going to wait around for you to decide." He almost hoped she would say no; she was likely going to slow him down, yet at the same time, he didn't think he had the heart to leave her there to fend for herself when whomever or whatever might still be loose in the hospital. And there was always a chance a cop might come in handy.

The woman seemed to consider her options, then came to a swift enough decision. Without a word, she stood from the bed and followed him out.

* * *

Together they scoured their floor of the hospital for some proper clothing and the supplies they would need when they ventured out into the mass of devastation that had once been Algonquin. With the subway system out of order and with the way the streets looked, it was going to take them a while to get anywhere, and they wouldn't get far without food and water, especially when the shops that provided those things had likely been resorted to rubble.

They'd had some luck finding clothes, but provisions were a different story, though neither had really expected to find nutritional items on their floor.

The search had left them both exhausted to the point of collapse, so the woman suggested they get rest before venturing any further into the hospital. Niko could hardly argue, even though a part of him had wanted to leave right then and there. When they had gone to their respective rooms, he barely made it to his bed. His muscles had gone to jello, his right side was killing him, and he had the headache of all headaches, worse than all the hangovers he'd ever suffered put together. And no painkillers were found in their search yet. It seeemed to not matter. A toll had been taken; pain or no pain, it was lights out for him the moment his head hit the pillow.

He had no idea how long he slept, but he awoke to the sound of a scream. Niko bolted up, hissing when his broken ribs screamed at him for it, and peered around his room, which was dimly lit by the moonlight spilling in from the window. His head was pounding along with his heart. He listened but heard nothing, and just as he had decided the scream must've been in a dream, it pierced through the dead silence again. The sound quickened his already racing pulse.

It was the woman.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath as he tossed aside his blanket and hurried out with an unsteady gait.

The hallway was darker than his room had been, but he was still able to find his way around by the faint, silvery moonlight coming in from the opened doors of the other hospital rooms. He moved along the wall for support and stumbled over something. Looking down, he saw the doctor's dismembered arm laying there in a pool of congealed blood, which was now all over his borrowed shoes. With a sound of disgust, Niko kicked the arm away and continued on.

As he approached the woman's room, he heard whimpering. The door was open. It wasn't supposed to be; he had told her to keep it shut in case the person, people or thing that had torn apart the hospital staff they'd came across was still in the building.

Niko stopped just to the side of the door and peered around the frame, his eyes widening at what he saw inside.

There was a tall, dark, hulking humanoid form standing toward the back of the room, cornering the woman there at the wall. Her head was craned up, her face a mask of horror as she stared at the giant in front of her. In her hands was one of those steel I.V. stands. She held it out in front of her to ward off the brute.

Niko looked around for something, anything he might harness as a weapon; she could not handle this leviathan on her own. Down the hall a bit he saw another one of those stands waiting for him outside a room. He quietly hurried past the door, grabbed the stand, then came back to his position. Gripping and lifting his improvised weapon like a baseball bat, Niko crept into the room behind the enormous, muscle-bound man. He stopped only a few feet away, then swung the stand, directing it at the side of the brute's head. Sharp pain knifed through his right side and threw his aim off. Instead of the head, the stand struck the guy in the side. Niko was horrified to see that the blow didn't even budge him; he might as well have hit the guy with a feather.

The man turned to him and Niko's breath quit for an instant. Cold fear froze his spine. The face he found himself looking up at was horrible. The man had a square head, a thick, jutting forehead, deep-set eyes, and a thin, cruel mouth. It might have been the moonlight, but the large man's skin looked corpse-grey, and there was a network of bulging, black veins running beneath it. But his eyes...it was mostly his eyes that stunned Niko. They were glowing a fierce blood-red. He had never seen anything like this in his life and not even to save himself could he have found an explanation for it. It was weird, unnatural, not human.

The brute's mouth twisted in a sneer, then, with hardly any effort, he drew back a large, veined hand and swept away Niko's improvised weapon. The stand flew across the room as if it had been shot from a cannon. It clanged against the wall, pocked a dent in it, and fell to the bed.

"Motherfuck," Niko swore, backing away. He knew a fight he couldn't win when he saw one, and this one was certain to send him straight to the afterlife. Yet to turn tail and run would mean leaving behind a small, innocent woman to fend off this massive animal by herself. Cop or not, she wouldn't last with this guy. He didn't know what to do.

He didn't need to. The woman took matters into her own hands. She lifted the stand in her hands over her head like an ax and bashed it into the back of the brute's skull repeatedly until the large man turned around and batted it away from her. She cringed and backed further into the wall, as if she might melt through it and save herself.

While the brute was distracted again, Niko made a grab for his weapon. Getting a hand on it, he turned just as the huge man let out a roar of rage that sounded as if it had come from the very bowels of hell. Then the giant charged at the woman, his hands out for her throat. She let out a cry of terror, her eyes like saucers as they darted around desperately for a way to defend herself, her hands groping for anything.

Holding the metal stand out in front of him like a jousting lance, Niko barreled on the brute with everything he had. The stand caught the man in the side the moment he tried to turn and propelled him toward the window. His legs met the sill and then he teetered backward, hands flailing for purchase. He found none. The brute went through the window in a shatter of broken glass, falling fifteen stories to his death on the pavement below.

Dropping the stand, Niko went over to the window as the woman dropped her own and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. He leaned out a bit to see the brute laying sprawled and broken in the hospital parking lot. A twisted halo of darkness spread from around his head. Blood.

He drew back from the window and heaved a sigh. "What the fuck _was_ that?"

"His eyes..." the woman whispered. "His face..."

Niko looked at her. She was huddled against the wall, pale and trembling. He moved and knelt down next her, looking her over for any injuries. Aside from being shaken up, she was fine. "You okay?" he asked, nonetheless. He hoped to God she wasn't going to go into hysterics again. He really didn't want to have to smack her around some more.

She didn't get hysterical. She just looked at him, aghast. "His eyes..."


	2. Chapter 2: Threats

**Chapter Two: Threats**

* * *

**L**ate the next morning, Niko and the woman whose name he still didn't know went on another supplies search. This time they found their way to the hospital cafeteria where they hoped to get some non-perishable food and bottled water. They had found what they needed, but they had also found more corpses, hospital staff and patients alike. Some of them were torn apart, others had questionable, gaping wounds in their throats; questionable because it was oddly precise for an attacker who seemed mindless with bloodlust.

They both agreed that the man they had encountered last night was the culprit. It only seemed logical. The man possessed a strength unlike anything Niko or the woman had ever seen, and that strength could've easily ripped these people apart. And it was becoming apparent that he'd been the only other living person there before he'd met his demise in the hospital parking lot.

"But that still doesn't explain the way that guy was, how he acted. Or those gross veins...and that freaky shit with his eyes," the woman said as they made their way to the ground floor of the hospital, both toting their own supplies in bags they had found. Since the electricity was out, they were forced to use the emergency stairs, and agreed to take breaks since their health conditions weren't much better than they had been yesterday. "Glowing red eyes," she went on. "That's not possible."

"Apparently, it is," Niko replied, helpfully.

"But..._how_?"

The man sighed. "Do I look like I know?"

"If you weren't here, witnessing all this shit, too, I would be certain I'd gone insane."

"Hey, maybe I'm just a figment of your imagination."

She frowned at him. "Hilarious, you fucking comedian."

Niko shrugged a shoulder.

They went silent for some moments as they continued descending the stairwell, then something came to mind that the woman felt she needed to share. "Did you notice anything else strange about his eyes?"

"No. The red and the glowing are strange enough for me."

"There was no expression in them."

Niko glanced at her with a weird look, not sure what she was getting at. "Uh..._what_?"

"You can see things in people's eyes; they have expression, life. His didn't. They were...glassy, vacant. Dead."

"I didn't notice. I was too busy trying to keep us from being killed."

"Yeah, speaking of that, um...thanks," she said. "For saving my ass."

"Don't be too thankful. My ass was on the line, too."

The woman gave an awkward chuckle. "Yeah, but you had the chance to run away. The moment that brute turned on you after you hit him, I was sure you were going to. Hell, you could've run when he turned his back on you."

"I ain't going to lie," Niko said. "I thought about it."

"It's cool; I don't blame you. I mean, anyone would think about it when they find themselves facing a seven-foot-tall, muscle-bound man with glowing, red eyes. I think the more interesting question is, why_ didn't_ you run?"

Niko shrugged. "Because I'm an idiot."

The woman had no idea what to say to that, so she changed the subject. "Well, since it looks like we're going to be sticking together for a while, mind telling me your name?"

"Niko."

"I'm Geneviève. Gen."

He glanced at her. "Unusual name for an American."

"Yeah. My mom was French."

They traveled down a few more levels, then took a brief break on the stairs to recover from the strenuous exercise. They were both sweating despite the coldness in the stairwell, and although the woman had only just recovered from being shot in the head, she was doing a hell of a lot better than Niko was. The pain from his broken ribs had become excrutiating; every motion and breath he took sent hot spears of agony through him. Add to that the fact that his head felt like it was going to explode, and Niko was surprised he'd made it _this_ far. He tried to hide it, but the woman had taken notice.

As they sat there, Gen rummaged through her bag of supplies. She had taken the opportunity during their earlier search to raid the hospital pharmacy, taking some bottles of painkillers and antibiotics in case they ended up needing them. From her bag, she retrieved the former and opened the bottle, shaking out a small white pill. She held it out to him on the palm of her hand. "Painkiller."

Niko shook his head. "No, I don't want to be doped up. If there is any chance we have to fight our way out of something again, I would face it with a clear mind."

"I figured as much; I wouldn't want to be doped up now, either," she said. "This is low dosage. I broke my arm once in police training and took this same kind. It won't muddle your mind, just dull the pain a bit."

He considered it and decided the pain was likely going to slow him down or impede his ablility to kick ass as much as being doped up would. He took the pill from her and popped it into his mouth. The woman thrust a bottle of water at him, wiggling it with a grin on her face.

"One side effect I had was a dry mouth, so drink up."

Niko accepted the bottle and drank from it. It was a cool relief and temporarily alleviated the drought that was already in his mouth and throat.

As rested as they were going to get, they started down the stairs again. The floor they had stopped to rest on was the sixth, so there wasn't much further to go. When they finally reached the ground floor and came to the door to the hospital's main lobby, they shared a similar kind of relief; the worst part of trying to get out of the hospital was behind them now.

There was a small waiting area in the lobby where they had hoped to take another break before venturing out into the remains of Algonquin, but gory corpses littered the place, and even with the front doors to the hospital open, the smell of rotting flesh was unbearable. To top it off, the lobby had become a breeding ground for flies.

"Jesus," Gen breathed as they moved toward the doors, trying their best to avoid the trail of dismembered and disembowled bodies that led to it. "Our big friend has been busy and it looks like he's been here for a while, with the state of decomp these bodies are in."

"No," said Niko. "I can see how he could have done those people we came across before, but not these. I count at least ten bodies, not including the ones crammed in the doors. This looks like the work of many people; two or three at the least."

As they drew near the doors, Gen found she couldn't take her eyes off the bodies blocking it. There were at least seven of them, all piled on top of each other, as if they had all tried to make an escape at the same time. There was a grotesque soup of coagulated blood and entrails surrounding them, and the plexiglass sliding doors were splattered dark red. Maggots wiggled around inside wounds, squirmed over guts, and a black cloud of flies buzzed about the bodies.

"Oh, yuck," Gen moaned at the sight.

Niko went first through the doors, maneuvering carefully over the stack of bodies. Gen came next, jumping over the corpses and stumbling when her foot caught one. She tried to catch her balance, failed, and went down on her hands and knees, only to find herself face to face with a decapitated head laying on the ground. Bloody, maggot-filled eye sockets stared at her. Gen let out a dismayed cry and scrambled away from the disgusting thing. Only when she was on her feet did she see the length of bloody spine still attached to the back of the head. Blood drained from her face and her stomach knotted.

"Are you okay?" Niko asked, observing the woman's unsettled look.

Gen didn't answer. She turned a curious shade of green, clamped a hand over her mouth and lurched after some nearby bushes, heaving the contents of her stomach into them.

"I guess not."

When Gen finished expelling, she straightened up, an embarrassed look on her face. "Sorry. I'm not used to this type of shit."

"No one is blaming you for your reaction," he said. "It's normal."

"Then why are you so calm?" she replied as she rummaged through her bag for a bottle of water.

Niko shrugged. "I'm strange, I guess."

He walked off down the sidewalk and Gen fell in step behind him as she rinsed the taste of barf out of her mouth. As they reached the end of the street, they heard shouting.

"Oh, God! _Oh, fucking God_! Someone help! Please, _someone help me_!"

A man in dusty clothes bolted past on the other side of the street, a look of utmost terror on his face. Two other men followed in hot pursuit.

Niko and Gen watched from where they stood on the street corner as the man being pursued chose the wrong moment to look back at the men chasing him. He collided with an abandoned Cavalcade, rebounded, and fell back on the street. The other two men, their eyes glowing red, were on him in a heartbeat. There was a sound then, that same bellow of rage the two standing on the sidewalk had heard before from the brute at the hospital.

Gen started forward. Niko grabbed her elbow. When she looked at him, he shook his head.

"We have to help him!" she insisted.

"We are unarmed and in poor condition," he reminded her. "We will do nothing but get ourselves killed. This is not worth our lives."

There was a blood-curdling scream as the man in the dusty clothes had his arm ripped clean off by one of his pursuers. Blood spurted out all over the attacker, and Niko and Gen were revolted to see him press his mouth against the bloody stump of the arm clutched in his hands. He tilted it back as if he was draining a mug of beer, squeezing the arm like a tube of toothpaste and slurping noisily.

"I think _I'm_ going to be sick now," said Niko.

The second attacker let out a feral growl and shoved his head at his shrieking victim's neck. There was a horrible, moist sound of ripping flesh as the man's teeth tore open the poor guy's throat. It ended his horrible screams.

Niko and Gen remained where they were, paralyzed by the violent scene unfolding just a few yards away from them. The woman let out a strangled moan of horror as her face blanched and her gut coiled, but she was too shocked to even vomit.

The other guy tossed the arm away and joined his friend. The two predators held onto the dead man as they proceeded to feast on his throat, elbowing each other for better access to their food source. The wet, sucking and smacking noises they made were loud and beyond repulsive.

Finished with their meal, they dropped the dead man and walked back the way they had come, moving with a rigid gait, their veiny faces gory with blood. And as they passed across the street, one of them paused mid-stride and slowly turned his head in Niko and Gen's direction. That broke through Niko's paraylsis.

Backpedaling with as much haste as he could manage, he said, "Run."

But Gen wasn't listening, too traumatized at the moment to hear him. She stood frozen as the two men with their sinister red eyes advanced on them.

Niko lurched for Gen, latching onto her arm. "_Run_, you stupid woman!" He turned and bolted up the street, dragging her along behind him.

He searched as he ran, searched for some way to lose the monsters now on their tail.

His penthouse was close by, if it was still standing. They could barricade themselves there, and if the barricade didn't work, they could still escape via the terrace. Niko changed directions, heading for the subway tracks at his left. They needed to go back the way the men were coming from, but there was no way they'd get past them without getting caught, and he didn't trust using the other street. The men might flank them and he and the woman would be trapped. The tracks were their best option; at the least, it would force the feral men to stay behind them, and maybe if it was their lucky day, Niko and Gen would be able to outrun them.

Releasing the woman's arm, Niko pulled himself up onto the concrete wall that separated the street from the tracks coming up from underground. Straddling it and groaning at the stabbing pain in his side, he reached a hand out to help the woman up, but she was too busy staring in the direction the men were coming from, her face pale and frightened.

"_Come on_!" he yelled at her.

Gen looked at him, startled. Ignoring his extended hand, she scrambled up onto the wall and threw herself over the side. She landed in a half-squat on the tracks, then straightened up as Niko landed on his feet next to her with a growl, a hand going to his right side. The constant pain of his fractured ribs was starting to get on his last damn nerve.

"Where?" she asked him.

Niko didn't bother with an answer. He ran, following the tracks' gradual accent from the ground. Gen sprinted after him, casting a glance over her shoulder to see the men climbing over the concrete wall.

She let out a moan and pushed herself to run faster. "I hope you know what you're doing!"

"We shall soon see," Niko replied between pants for air. He'd barely run a yard and already he was in so much pain that it stole his breath and made it difficult to keep pace.

They dashed up the tracks with everything they had, but their pursuers were gaining ground on them.

Up ahead, there was a gaping hole filled with wreckage where a subway station had once stood, likely a victim of falling debris.

Niko and Gen stopped at the jagged ledge, peering down at the mess.

"Was _this_ part of your plan?" the woman asked.

"It's not one of my best plans," Niko admitted. "But they have stayed behind us as I wanted them to do. We might be able to escape them by going through all that shit down there."

Gen glanced back. "We better do it now, then. Our 'friends' are getting close."

Niko looked over a shoulder to see the two men only yards away. They had slowed their roll, moving now with a determined, stalking gait; wolves closing in on their prey.

Niko didn't waste the time looking for a safe way down; he would rather chance death in the debris then face a gruseome, certain death at the hands of those men. He located a slab of flat concrete just below the ledge and dropped down on it. Gen came after him, landing on her feet with cat-like grace. They picked their way through the wreckage. Most of the debris was unstable and teetered dangerously underfoot, but they had found a path to take that would lead them to the street.

The men pursuing them finally made it to the ledge. The first guy jumped down on that same slab of concrete, but his efforts came with undesired results. The man landed too close to the edge. His equilibrium robbed, he pinwheeled his arms to try to get it back. It was too late. He careened over the edge and impaled himself on a spike of metal sticking out of the debris. It went straight through his chest and exited his back in a sickening flourish of blood. Gen watched with morbid fascination as the man struggled on it, trying to push himself back up the spike, but his weight kept making it slide back down.

"Jesus, that's not possible," Gen moaned, mostly to herself. _He's supposed to be dead._

She saw the other guy preparing to jump from the ledge and turned away from the bizarre scene, ducking under and around a twisted metal beam.

The guy dropped down and had better luck than his companion, landing with sturdy feet and legs. Setting his strange red eyes on his prey, he climbed quick and effortless over the obstacle course of junk while his buddy continued to vainly free himself from his impaled state.

Gen looked back to see the man getting closer. She made a strangled noise and picked up her pace, passing Niko as he struggled to get up a crumbled piece of building material that was nearly as tall as he was. The woman had no trouble climbing it. She leaned down and thrust a hand out to help him. "Quick," she said. "That guy's right behind you."

Niko glanced back. Sure enough, the guy was a mere ten feet away. "Ooh, _fuck_."

He grabbed the woman's hand, and just as she was trying to pull him up, the psycho killer screamed in rage and lunged for Niko. He stumbled over something and ran into Niko's back. Staggering from the impact, Niko lost his grip on Gen's hand. His foot slipped over an unseen edge, throwing his balance.

He fell. He had no idea where he was falling to, but he was almost certain he had banged into every piece of stone, metal and glass on his way down. At one point in the journey, something sharp had scraped mercilessly up his right side. The pain was so tremendous he couldn't even find the voice or breath to scream. At the end of his fall, he struck a solid surface and his vision unfocused and dimmed. He fought unconsciousness, but in the end, the darkness took him.

Meanwhile, up in the debris, Gen found herself facing the brute killer alone. She had no idea if Niko was still alive or not, but she had no time to think about it. The brute had forgotten him and now she was his target.

Snarling at her, the man grabbed the ledge of her stone slab perch and began pulling himself up it. Gen wasn't having that. She drew back a foot and smashed it into his face. The killer fell back with a growl and that gave her time to escape.

Gen dropped down on the other side where the debris spilled off into the street below. As she climbed her way down, she looked for anything she could use as a weapon; that guy wasn't taking her without a fight. She needed something that would keep her out of the man's reach; something of length, a pole or a pipe. Just as she started to fear she would find nothing, her foot kicked something and it slid off into the street. It was a strip of twisted metal, maybe four feet long, and ending in a jagged point. That would do. Reaching the bottom of the debris, she hurried over to where she'd kicked her weapon and retrieved it.

The brute man finally made his way over the mountain of destruction. There was a look of mindless rage on his face, the bottom part of it covered in fresh blood. It dribbled from a broken nose and over his chin onto his dirty shirt. He licked at it as if were the remnants of a delicious meal.

Reaching the bottom, the man gave Gen a blood-stained sneer, let out a hellish growl, and barreled on her with startling speed.

Gen poised her weapon in front of her and met him head on. They collided together and the force knocked them both to the ground, Gen losing her grip on her weapon.

She scrambled to her feet to see the man struggling with that twist of metal speared through his belly. It was like he couldn't even feel it; there was no look of pain on his face, only that senseless rage. How was that possible? How could he _not_ feel it? How was he even still living through it? It was just like the other guy, impaled on that spike and refusing to die.

Gen would take care of that.

She searched around her and found a large piece of stone nearby. It should have been too heavy for her to lift, but the adrenaline rushing through her lent her a freakish strength. She held the stone with both hands and slammed it down on the man's head, crushing it with a single blow. Blood and brains spurted out on the street, splattering her shoes and the legs of her pants.

"How do you like that, asshole!?" she shouted at the corpse, giving it a good kick. "You're dead now, aren't you!?"

She wanted to kick it again, but she didn't. Now that the immediate threat was gone, she needed to find Niko somewhere in all this rubble.

Gen put a foot on the dead man's thigh and yanked her weapon from his gut - a strip of metal as a weapon was better than no weapon at all - then she began her search. She checked around the debris first and was glad she did. She spotted Niko lying on the street not far from the mountain of junk, unmoving.

The woman hurried over and knelt at his side. With all the bloody cuts and welts and bruises the man had on him, he looked like he'd been a brawl and lost.

Gen checked for a pulse. It was there and strong, and he was breathing. The fall had likely knocked him unconscious. She inspected him for any dire wounds or broken bones, anything that might prevent her from moving him. The worst of his injuries were only a bleeding gash along his right side and a shard of glass sticking out of his thigh, but it wasn't deep. The man had gotten lucky this time; he could've broke his neck or worse.

Gen yanked out the glass and tossed it away. His side would have to wait.

Now came the fun part of getting them both off the street in one piece.

* * *

With a strangled noise, Niko jolted from a nightmare of blood and death. He'd dreamt of his cousin's daughter getting torn to pieces.

The sickening images and sound of the child's screaming were slow to leave his mind, but the pain of the injuries he'd suffered in his fall were quick to grip him. Making a face, he pressed a hand along his right side, where it hurt the worst, and felt a bandage there under his shirt.

"Nightmare?"

His head turned in the direction of that voice and he found Gen lounging in an arm chair across from him, a concerned look on her face.

Niko didn't answer her question. Instead, he looked about his alien environment. They were in someone's living room. It was dimly lit by the single candle sitting on the coffee table. Niko was on a couch with a blanket and wondered how he'd gotten there.

"What happened?" he asked with a groggy voice.

Gen eased herself to the edge of her chair. Her face was stern and cold. "You took a nasty fall and passed out on the street. I had to take on that luantic _by my fucking self_, then I dragged your sorry, useless ass here," she informed him with a tone as cold as her expression.

Niko scowled at her. "It's not like I did it on fucking purpose."

"No, but if you had listened to me at the hospital, we wouldn't have been out there in our condition in the first place. We never would've been pursued by those two killers and you never would've fallen. You're pushing yourself beyond your limits."

He looked away. "Fuck my limits. I have to find my family."

"You can't do that if you're dead. And you will be if you keep pushing yourself like this in your state."

She had a point, Niko knew, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"What do you know?" he shot back. "You, who has _no one_ to worry about. You can't understand."

Gen looked away from him, stung by his remark. For a moment, she stared at the floor, then she shot up from the chair. "Yeah, I'm not as fortunate as you to have anyone left. What do I know, aside from what it's like to have watched everyone I love _die_ and couldn't do a damn thing about any of it?" Her stormy eyes found his. "You know _shit_ about me."

She stomped across the living room into the adjoining kitchenette, where she rifled noisily through some cabinets for food, anything to get away from him. _Presumptuous son-of-a-bitch._

If it had been her intention to make him feel like a first class jerk, it worked.

With a sigh, Niko rose from the couch, grimacing, and stepped into the kitchen. He leaned against the dead refrigerator for support-just that short trip had been taxing-and watched the woman for a moment as she took a few small boxes of something down from a cabinet.

"Look, I'm sorry," he said with sincerity. "For what I said. I'm just worried about them; I have to find them."

Gen paused, staring down at the counter at what she'd gathered. Then she lifted one of the boxes and made a face at it. It seemed she had decided to ignore his apology. "How do you feel about raisins?" Her tone was harsh.

"I don't particularly care for them, but I'm not going to complain if that's all there is."

"There's boxes of cereal."

"Cereal without milk? How uncivilized," he replied, trying to jest to lighten her up. "I think I'd rather have the raisins."

Gen was not amused by him. She tossed a box of raisins in the air at him, then went into the living room. Catching the box, he followed, taking his place on the couch again.

From her chair, Gen rummaged through her bag for the painkillers. They were at the bottom with the rest of the drugs she had procured from the hospital. Looking inside, she noticed one of bottles was labeled Valium, in ten milligram dosage. That gave her pause; she hadn't remembered grabbing any tranquilizers, yet there it was, tempting her to do something naughty.

Seeing as how Niko didn't seem to like or want to be doped up, Gen figured he didn't make a habit of taking stuff like this. If she gave him the Valium, it would likely knock him out. At the very least, it would leave him too relaxed and foggy-headed to even consider going back out on the street.

Gen surprised even herself with what she was thinking of doing. Doping a guy up without his knowledge? _People go to jail for this kind of shit, _she thought. And she was a police officer, no less. Still, it was with good intentions. The man was so hell-bent on finding his family that he had no regard for his own health. It was admirable, but foolish. They knew nothing of what was going on in the city. If there was a chance there were more people out there like the three they had already encountered...

There couldn't be another incident like there had been earlier up on the subway tracks and on that hill of debris. That had been too close a call. If he had been in better condition he might have fended off that red-eyed brute, or at least he would've out-distanced him.

Gen made her decision, for good or ill. Keeping the bottle of Valium hidden in her bag, she opened it and took out one of the little round, blue pills. She held it out to Niko, knowing he would probably be smart enough to realize it wasn't the same pill she had given him earlier. She had a plan for that.

As expected, he eyed the pill with suspicion, then he eyed her.

"Antibiotic," she told him. "Just to be on the safe side. You had a piece of glass lodged in your leg when I found you, then there's the nasty gash on your side. I bandaged it up, but I couldn't find anything to disinfect it. Don't want those wounds causing an infection."

"Get a good look at me while you were bandaging me up?" he teased, still trying to lighten her mood.

It worked a little.

"Oh yeah, _and_ took advantage of your unconscious body," she jested, deciding an instant later that it was by far the worst joke to make considering she was about to more or less roofie him. "Come on, take the pill."

Niko accepted it. "Thanks," he said. "For the medicine, not for taking advantage of me."

"I hope you know I was kidding about that."

"Sure," he said. "You Americans have a bizarre sense of humor, but I've gotten used to it."

Gen watched him chase the pill down with a mouthful of bottled water, feeling a tinge a guilt for her deception. Then she asked, "Where are you from?"

"Europe."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down."

"Eastern Europe."

Gen made a face. "Fine, don't tell me."

"It doesn't matter, anyway," Niko said. "I'm not home and I won't be going back."

"You might consider it if the whole damn city is like Algonquin."

"If that is the case, I'll move to...San Andreas. I hear the beaches are nice there, and I could do with some warmer weather for a change."

"Why don't you want to go home?" Gen pressed because her curiosity was piqued now.

"That doesn't matter, either," he said with a tone that implied he was getting impatient with her questions.

The woman grinned. "Okay, I get it. You want to be a mystery. That's fine. I'm a cop; I like to solve mysteries."

"What you get from solving this mystery will come as an unpleasant shock to you," Niko cautioned.

"I just woke up from a two week-long coma to find most of Algonquin leveled and red-eyed, homicidal lunatics ripping people apart on the streets. I don't think anything about you can be more unpleasantly shocking than that," she reasoned.

Well, she had a point there, he could admit, but he still had no desire to lay bare his unsavory past to a woman he'd only just met.

"If you are going to try to solve me, good luck. You are not getting any clues from me."

Gen pouted. "Well, you're no fun." Maybe he would be once the Valium took effect. She wished it would hurry up; his standoffishness was annoying.

Niko gave an indifferent shrug to her remark and said nothing more. As far as he was concerned, the conversation was over.

They ate their raisins in silence. They weren't very filling, but they were better than nothing. Gen might have eaten something else from her bag, but they hadn't been able to find a lot in the hospital cafeteria and she felt they needed to conserve what little they had. If they got lucky, maybe they would find something else in their journey.

She had decided while the man was unconscious that they should swing by the local police precinct once they were able to get to traveling again. Perhaps if it was still standing and if anyone was still around she could find out what had happened to Algonquin and why there were red-eyed killers murdering people out on the streets in broad daylight. It was obvious that there had been some catastrophic event. Perhaps it had been war, as Niko surmised, but it seemed to be over now; there were no bombs going off, no sounds of gunfire, no armies amassing in the streets, no tanks or aircraft. Nothing, save a few psycho killers and one man, who was now dismembered and a bit eaten near the hospital.

"Where the hell is everyone?" she found herself speaking aloud some time later.

"What?"

"The people. The citizens, the police, _everyone_. Where are they?"

"Evacuated?" Niko guessed.

"Assuming this was either a terrorist attack or war, there wouldn't be evacuations. Too dangerous for that. Citizens would've been ordered to shelter in place. Yet there was hardly anyone at the hospital. I mean, we only found a few corpses. There should've been more patients and some kind of police presence there. Or at least a hospital security guard or two."

"There was a killer on the loose in the hospital and two on the streets," Niko reminded her. "They might have murdered them or scared them all off."

"Yeah, but with all the bodies we came across, you'd think one of them might have been a cop or a security guard..." She shook her head. "It doesn't make sense."

"We didn't search the entire hospital. You're thinking too much."

"Maybe you're not thinking enough."

His face hardened. "Excuse me?"

"It's unusual. And it's not just what we saw and didn't see at the hospital. I don't think this was a terrorist attack or war. Those things usually yield a whole hell of a lot of bodies and we've seen not a one out on the streets. Except that guy those brutes tore apart...and apparently _ate_. Then there's the weirdness of the brutes themselves and the fact that we haven't seen anything military out there."

"We've only seen this one corner of Algonquin," he pointed out as he rubbed at his forehead. He was feeling a little strange, fuzzy in the head and his muscles were going jello-y again. "Most of the action probably took place elsewhere. In war and in acts of terror, there is always a target of attack, and it's usually highly populated or important, like a government building. There's nothing like that in this area."

"Well," Gen sighed. "Assuming you're right, it still doesn't explain the weirdo killers with the red eyes. What's your take on that?"

Niko shrugged. "They must have some disease or illness that has made them go mad. It's the only logical explanation. They were near the hospital when we came across them, so I'm guessing they were patients there."

Something occured to Gen then, something that put a look of horror on her face. "What if they're..._contagious_?"

Niko shrugged again and shifted on the couch with some unease at the way he was feeling; it was getting worse. "They are dead now, so I doubt it matters."

"Unless they've infected others...or us, since we were in contact with them."

"There's nothing we can do about it. If there are any doctors left here, we'll never locate one in time to keep from getting sick."

"Uh...how are you feeling?"

"Shitty. But not in a lunatic killer kind of way, if that's what you are getting at."

She acquired a sheepish look. "Just making sure."

"What about you?" he asked, a slur in his speech. The haze in his head was thick now, leaving him feeling like he was on the bender of a lifetime. And his entire body was so relaxed that his muscles may as well have turned to water. How or why he felt like this, he didn't know and found that he didn't care. "You...uhh...feel like tearing people apart?"

"No," she replied with an awkward laugh. "Actually, I feel pretty damn good for having been shot in the head."

Niko wasn't listening anymore. He stared off across the living room at nothing, spaced-out. "I feel funny."

"I imagine so, what with all that's happened today," Gen said.

"Is not that..." he said, the words coming out sluggish. "I feel...drunk. Am I drunk?" He looked at her through the haze, confused. "Did I drink?"

"Uh, yeah," Gen lied. "You drank a lot. You better lie down and sleep it off."

"That's...good idea." He felt like he could sleep for a few years, and he was looking forward to it.

Niko moved to lie back and it felt like he was doing so in slow-motion. His head dropped on a throw pillow and off he went to the Land of Nod.

Gen shook her head with a sigh. "Sorry, Niko, but it's for your own good." Then the guilt came, stronger than before. _What have I done?_ Her conscience provided an answer. _Something you're probably going to regret if he finds out._

* * *

It took him three days to realize it, what Gen had done to him.

At first, Niko had blamed his recurring fatigue and fogginess of head on the insistent, throbbing pain in his right side. Constant pain, especially when it was intense, took its toll, but when he had awoken the previous morning, he found that the pain had finally dulled to a bearable ache. He'd slept a good ten hours through the night, so there was no reason why he should be feeling so tired and strange now. In fact, he had felt okay when he'd awoken, just a little burned out, but that was to be expected after all he'd been through. It was only after Gen had insisted he take another antibiotic that he started feeling like a bowl of drowsy jello again. Because he thought she was concerned for his health, he took it; for some idiotic reason, he trusted her.

Now, sitting on the couch with his head beginning to cloud over, it struck Niko. Antibiotics had side effects, but not like this. Then there was the suspicious timing. Everytime he had suggested they get moving again, she would insist he take a pill, and when he did, he became too tired and his muscles became too jellified for him to move.

She was dosing him. All this time.

_For three fucking days._

He felt like such a moron for not realizing it sooner.

Niko couldn't confront her yet, but he would; by God, he was going to make the bitch regret it. By doping him up, she had prevented him from going out there and finding his family, and that was a transgression he would not forgive.

Gen had gone off to search the other apartments in the building to see if she could find supplies and anything they could use to defend themselves with if they happened across anymore homicidal lunatics. That suited him just fine. It gave him the chance to at least spite her by destroying the shit she was drugging him with.

Niko didn't have long before the drug took complete effect, so he didn't waste any time. He got up from the couch and found her bag sitting by the arm chair. He dumped its contents onto the floor and was not surprised to find that the woman had a small pharmacy in there. He collected every bottle and took them to the bathroom. Emptying the contents into the toilet, he watched with foggy satisfaction as the pills dissolved in the water.

With his mind in a dope cloud, Niko staggered back to the living room and collapsed on the couch. Before the drug knocked him out, he had a wish to see her face when she realized her pills were gone.

And he got that wish.

Some time later, he was rudely shaken into consciousness. When Niko opened his eyes, there was a familiar woman's face, twisted with cold anger, hovering over him. Even in his state of intense grogginess, he was capable of giving her a smug look.

"Something wrong?" he asked with a tired voice.

"What did you do with them?" Gen demanded.

Niko sat up, rubbing sleep from his face, then he regarded her with a casual expression. "What did I do with what?"

"Don't bother playing stupid when you're already an idiot," she said. "You know what I'm talking about."

"Do I?" he snapped. "Oh, you must be talking about the drugs you've been keeping me fucking doped up with."

"I-" she started, then closed her mouth. When she had found the drugs gone, she'd known it was him. What she didn't know was how he'd even found out that she'd been drugging him in the first place; she'd assumed he would've been too doped up to realize it. Well, there was no point denying what she'd done now. Gen crossed her arms over her chest and defended her actions. "It was for your own good."

Niko laughed. It wasn't in amusment. "You kept me dosed for _three fucking days_ for my own good?"

She frowned. "You make it sound like I was trying to do you harm. Look, we almost died when those guys attacked us the other day, because we were both in bad condition, you more than me. So, yeah, I drugged you. We don't know what's waiting for us out there; you need to be healthy if we're to take anything on. How're you feeling, by the way? _Better_?"

Niko shot from his spot and with such a blazing look of fury on his face that Gen backed away from him, certain he was going to smack the shit out of her; he'd done it before, and now he had a damn good reason to do it again, at least in his mind.

"That's beside the fucking point," he growled. "I can take care of myself!"

"Oh, _suuure_," Gen retorted with a roll of her eyes. "Driving drunk and landing yourself in the hospital _and_ in a coma, pushing yourself when you can't handle it. You're a real expert at taking care of yourself."

A malign darkness clouded his face. "_Fuck you_."

"No, fuck _you_, you ungrateful piece of shit," she replied with a cold calmness. "I should've left your sorry ass out there on the street."

"Yes, you should have. I might be in Broker with my family by now if you hadn't drugged me!" Niko shouted at her. "I swear to God, if something has happened to them while I've been here, wasted out of my mind..."

"What?" Gen provoked. "Come on, tough guy, don't be shy. Let's hear what you're going to do."

Niko stared her right in the eyes, a dangerous look in his own. "I will kill you." He said it with the cold, matter-of-fact voice of the hitman he'd once been and never wanted to be again. But when it came down to anyone standing between him and his family, being that man couldn't be helped.

Gen didn't blink or flinch at the words. She was smiling. "Threatening a police officer. You really are fucking stupid."

Niko laughed. Now it was in amusement. "What are you going to do? _Arrest me_?"

He knew she couldn't, and so did she. Her smile curdled. "What did you do with the drugs? I want them back."

"You'll find them in the toilet."

Gen shook her head, exasperated. "What was the point of getting rid of them?"

"I thought that was fucking obvious."

"Because you're a petty asshole?"

"If that's what you want to believe. I don't care."

"I hope your injuries get infected, then you'll regret what you've done."

"We shall see who regrets what they have done."

"More empty threats?" she scoffed.

"No. Fact. I trusted you, and I won't be making that mistake again. Consider yourself on your own now."

Gen's arms dropped to her sides, a frown deepening on her face. "If you're doing this to get back at me, you're hurting yourself, too. We don't know what's out there. There may be more of those psychos on the loose, or terrorists or enemy soldiers, or...who knows what! We'll have a better chance out there if we stick together."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you decided to drug me," Niko replied with contempt as he shouldered his bag of supplies and headed for the door. "I will do just fine on my own."

The man opened it, stepped through, and never looked back.

* * *

*A note on Geneviève's name: It's pronounced Zhawn-vee-ehv (kind of hard to find the proper phonetics for the first sound of name; kind of sounds like 'John' but with a 'Z' sound after the J. The shortened version of the name (Gen) is pronounced just like Jen.

Don't know why, but I've always wanted to use this name for a female cop.


	3. Chapter 3: Sewers

**Chapter Three: Sewers**

* * *

**N**iko made it as far as Middle Park only to find his route blocked off. The Frankfort-Topaz interesection was clogged with mobs of people, and not just any kind of people, but ones with red eyes and veiny, corpse-grey skin.

If this was some kind of disease, it had spread.

There were also dead bodies everywhere, more than Niko cared to count. The smell, even in open air, was just plain repulsive. He was no stranger to the foul stench of death, but one never got used to it.

He could not pass with that mob there; he didn't trust them not to attack him after the last red-eyed freaks he'd come across and he particularly didn't want whatever disease they might be carrying if it was contagious. So, he changed directions and took the back streets to work his way around them.

That hadn't been a promising route. Red-eyed freaks had taken to the back streets as well, in smaller groups but no less dangerous. On nearly every street he had taken, Niko had but a split second to dodge out of sight before any of them noticed him. With all the nimble footwork they were forcing on him, he was turning into quite the dancer, moving to the tune of survival.

And just as he started to think he was getting adept at eluding them, he'd ducked into the wrong alleyway and came upon two freaks. Niko had a second to observe their blank faces before they twisted in rage. Then they were running at him, screaming and growling.

There was no time for escape and no time to worry about contagious diseases. They were too close.

Niko took advantage of that closeness, sweeping low to the ground on one knee, using himself as an obstacle. The guy running ahead of the other couldn't stop in enough time and tripped over him, landing with a thud somewhere behind him. The other guy was there an instant later. Niko dropped on his left side and kicked the guy's leg out from under him. The man stumbled forward and fell atop his friend, who'd been trying to get to his feet.

While he had the chance, Niko scrambled to his feet and bolted from the alleyway, but it seemed the killers' earlier sounds of fury had called upon others. The moment he reached the street, he found himself trapped. There were two lunatics blocking the street on one end, two at the other, and three more moving up the alleyway across the street.

Niko tried to remain calm, but his heart was pounding wildly. In his own ears, his pulse sounded like raw thunder; he hardly heard his own voice when he cursed his bad luck.

The killers closed in, in no real hurry, perhaps knowing they had him cornered. These murderous freaks may have seemed mindless, but Niko began to wonder if that was just deception or his underestimating them; after all, they were smart enough to coordinate and box him in.

Niko's eyes darted around his environment for an escape route and sighted a fire escape in the alley across the street. There was a dumpster placed conveniently underneath it; he could reach the ladder from it if he was fast enough to get there before the lunatics moving up that same alley did.

_Here goes nothing._

Giving it all he had, he dashed for the dumpster. The killers in the alleyway before him broke into a run. Military experience and years of running from authority and people who wanted him dead gave Niko the edge. He made it to the dumpster first and leapt for it. His belly crashed into its side, knocking his breath out, but he was able to claw his way onto the trash recepticle.

The killers were there an instant later. The one that had come first, a woman, made a grab for him, but the two behind her had come in too fast. They collided with her and sent her sprawling. There was a nasty crack as the woman's head met concrete.

Niko grabbed hold of the ladder and pulled himself upright. He'd gotten onto the first few rungs when a hand grabbed his ankle and painfully wrenched his foot. He held onto the ladder for dear life and tried to shake the man off him. He kicked with everything he had, and at last, the man lost his hold. But he didn't give up easily. The killer tried to get after him again, attempting to climb up on the dumpster this time.

"Oh, no you don't, you little fucker," said Niko as he slammed his foot into the man's face. His nose shattered from the blow and he flailed to the ground, his face a bloody mess.

Niko scrambled up the ladder as the third guy lurched over the two laying on the ground and lifted himself up on the dumpster. Reaching the first level of the fire escape, Niko yanked the ladder up before the guy could get a hand on it. He looked over the railing to find the man glaring up at him, his face a mask of fury. He snarled and lunged upward for the ladder just out of his reach.

The other lunatics from the street were now crowding into the alley, but Niko didn't concern himself with them; he was safe on the fire escape for the time being.

Offering the lunatic below him an ominous smile, Niko grabbed the ladder with both hands and shoved it down on him. There was a horrid cracking sound as the bottom rung of the ladder nearly split the man's skull in two. His body landed on the ground and the other killers looked from his fresh corpse to Niko, almost simultaneously. Then all hell broke loose.

Screaming and raving incoherently, the group converged madly on the dumpster, some getting up on it while others pulled them off to get at the man who'd killed one of their own. They were affected by the loss, Niko saw that clearly. The notion may have seemed impossible for these single-minded psychos, but it was in the way they sounded, in the way they looked; there was outrage there rather than mindless bloodlust.

Niko lifted the ladder up again, the bottom of it flecked with bits of brain and dripping blood. He found the mechanism to lock it in place, then left the lunatics to their raging, his right ankle smarting with every step up the fire escape. He disregarded the pain; a sore ankle was better than being torn apart.

He found a window and smashed a foot through it. Kicking out the remainder of the glass, he ducked inside and found himself in an office of some sort. There was a desk and swivel chair near the window, some filing cabinets, and motivational posters on the walls.

Niko went to the desk and rummaged through the drawers, hoping to find something useful as a weapon. No such luck, but he did find a small bottle of whiskey hidden in a bottom drawer under some file folders and loose papers.

Niko slipped the bottle into his tote, promising himself that he would only open it when he found his cousin. They would drink it and laugh about old times and forget any of this had happened, even if for only a brief moment.

He often thought of his family, but he thought of his friends as well. Patrick had gone off to San Andreas a year ago and they hadn't spoken since he left; he was safe as far as Niko knew. Dwayne had committed suicide six months after he'd had Niko kill his friend, the guilt too much for him to cope with any longer; he was at least spared this madness. But Jacob, Brucie, and Florian...they were all out there somewhere. Alive or dead or mad from sickness, he didn't know. Once he found his family, he would look for them, too.

_I need some damn guns or I won't get far in finding anyone._

But he didn't trust luck to offer up one of those underground gun shops he used to patronize or a standing police station free of fuzz; it seemed luck had chosen the most inconvenient moment to go on vacation. That left his safehouses. He had stocked most of them with a cache of firearms, because that's what any sensible hitman would do; it was convenient, offered personal and home security, and having them at hand had kept him from making frequent, risky purchases, which somewhat lessened the chance of him seeing the inside of a prison cell again. When that life had ended, he had never gotten rid of his firearms, as he felt safer having them around.

Unfortunately, his closest property, a penthouse in North Holland, wasn't one he'd stocked with guns, seeing as how he rarely went there. That left his loft _way_ on the east side of Middle Park. Normally, it wouldn't have seemed like a long way to travel, even on foot, but considering it had taken him most of the day just to get a few blocks from the hospital, he'd be lucky (he actually wouldn't since Lady Luck was figuratively lounging on a beach somewhere) to reach his apartment in a month. He considered crossing through the park, but he was almost certain it would be overrun with maniacs.

He would just have to get there the hard way.

Niko headed for the office door and opened it with caution, peering out to make sure the way was clear. He doubted the freaks outside had come in the building, but better safe than sorry.

There was nothing threatening waiting for him.

Niko stepped out into the hallway and located the emergency stairwell. He made his descent, taking the stairs two at a time. Reaching the bottom and another door, he opened it a crack and peeked through.

There was nothing but a mostly empty lobby, its only occupant being a rotting corpse in a Taxi that had smashed through the front glass doors of the building.

He stepped out and made his way over to the cab. The expired driver was slumped over the steering wheel. He was at least a few days dead, by the look and smell of him. His neck was a gory mess, the flesh ripped open. There was dried blood all over him, his seat, and the outside of the door. Niko couldn't see how an injury like that could happen in a car wreck when no other part of the man was so hideously injured, and there was nothing around to have given him the wound he had.

He recalled the live attack he'd witnessed after leaving the hospital, how one of the lunatics had ripped open his victim's neck with his teeth. And some of the corpses he'd seen at the hospital had similar injuries as this Taxi driver.

_What the hell is wrong with these people?_

A rustling noise coming from the street stole Niko's attention. He ducked behind the front of the mustard-hued car as the sound grew closer, peering over the hood just long enough to see three men moving past the wreckage. He didn't get a good enough look to tell if they were normal people or lunatics. Niko wasn't taking any chances.

Silently, he eased himself on his stomach and lay there, still as a corpse - the old opossum routine. If they decided to come into the building, they would think him dead and not give him a second glance. Hopefully; maybe Hope hadn't gone on vacation with Luck.

He watched their feet through the empty space under the car. They paused on the sidewalk and turned in his direction as Niko's instinct had expected. The three pairs of feet moved into the building, crunching over the shards of glass littering the floor. Niko closed his eyes, held his breath, and waited, listening.

More glass crunched as they moved closer. He could sense them, could feel them looming over him. One of them nudged him hard. He went limp, boneless.

It grew silent, silent enough that Niko feared the hard drumming of his heart could be heard. There were some sounds, but faint; the wind as it blew around the building with a ghost-like sigh, the soft tinkling of broken glass as it was shifted around in the breeze, and the men breathing.

The light behind Niko's eyelids dimmed as someone knelt and leaned over him. He felt breath on his face, warm and moist. His gut was heavy and knotted with apprehension. His throat and chest were tight and straining and burning from the lack of oxygen, the urge to draw in air almost impossible to fight.

_Don't breathe. Don't fucking breathe._

Finally, after what seemed like years to him, the person drew away, made a grunt, then he and the rest were moving off, shoes grinding through glass again. Niko didn't move, but waited and listened for the sounds of their steps to fade. When all he could hear was the wind, he breathed again, opened his eyes and looked under the Taxi. Seeing no signs of the men, he deemed it safe and pushed himself up.

Carefully, he stepped his way through the glass, trying not to make too much noise. When he reached the place where the building's front doors should have been, he leaned out and looked around the street. It was deserted for now, so Niko took his chance and dashed off up the sidewalk.

Reaching the corner, he made sure he was still alone, then pressed himself along the edge of the building he'd just come out of, looking around it at the street where the lunatics had tried to surround him. There were only two loitering there. Where the rest were, he had no clue. Maybe they were still in the alleyway or, hopefully, they had moved on.

He needed a distraction to get by the murderous duo. Searching the ground around him, he bent and retrieved something that might have once been a cellphone or an MP3 player; it was too smashed up to tell. He hurled it out over the heads of the two men and the thing clattered to the ground. The moment the men turned toward the sound, Niko shot off across the street.

One of the men seemed to sense his movement and turned just as he made it to the other side. Niko kept running; he knew the man had seen him and knew the two would pursue. As expected, he heard the man's enraged roar. Halfway down the street, he glanced over his shoulder to see the men pounding down the sidewalk after him. Even expecting them, Niko could not help his frustration.

"Arrgh! Leave me the hell alone!"

Dodging around abandoned cars and springing over rubble, he now closed in on the end of the street where it connected with Frankfort Avenue. He rushed across to the opposite sidewalk, deciding to take a right on the street. The big mob had been further up the left side of the avenue where it intersected with Topaz Street. If they saw him, he would have a better chance of outrunning them if he went right. He skirted around the corner, seeing the street ahead mostly clear. There was another mob, but further off up the road. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the bigger mob still clogging the Topaz-Frankfort intersection. They were too far away to notice him.

And he'd been right about the park. There were freaks roaming around inside it, a lot of them, but they were further off towards the center of the park, hopefully too far away to see him.

The two freaks pursuing him hadn't rounded the corner yet, so Niko searched for a way to lose them while he had the chance. There were businesses lining the street on his side, all still intact for the most part. He grabbed for the first door within reach. Something inside him screamed with relief at finding it unlocked. He dodged inside and threw himself behind a wall, looking around it to see if his pursuers would know he'd gone inside. His breathing was heavy and labored. His heart was thundering painfully against his chest and jackhammering in his ears.

Minutes seemed like hours before the men finally streamed past the door, out of sight.

In the clear for the time being, Niko heaved a great sigh and looked around. It seemed he was in the lobby of some hotel. How he was going to get out of it unseen, he had no idea yet. He would think about it later. Now was the time for recovery since he'd spent half the day running for his life. He was exhausted. He felt better than he had a few days ago, but his health wasn't up to par yet to be taking on a lot of activity. He would be dead if he'd been in the shape he was after leaving the hospital; there was no way he could've outrun any of them or had the strength to fight them if it had come to it.

That fact alone made him think of Gen and what she had done to him. For an instant, he entertained the idea that her drugging him might have actually been good for him, had probably saved his life. Then he booted the idea right out of his mind. The woman had no right to deceive him the way she had. If she had voiced her concerns rather than acting on them, he might have seen it her way. Maybe.

_Probably not, but she still had no right to-_

A noise interrupted the thought. It came from behind the reception desk, a soft whimper. As slight as the sound was, it was still enough to startle him. He jumped and backed into the concrete pillar in the middle of the lobby with a grunt of surprise.

Then there was a shriek from behind that desk, "Go away, you beast!" A hand shot out and flung something blunt at Niko.

He ducked the object before it could smash him in the face. It rebounded off the pillar with a clang. Niko saw it was the call bell from the reception desk. But that was the least of his concerns. The voice was familiar; it had an accent similar to his own.

Niko took a cautious step toward the desk. "Florian? Is that you?"

A head rose part-way over the desk, revealing well-groomed tawny hair and wide, surprised eyes. They weren't red and they weren't glowing. "Niko?" The small man sprang up from his hiding spot, a look and a smile of total relief on his face.

Niko was a bit dismayed to see his friend dressed in a bright pink tracksuit. He had no clue how Florian could've made it through the city without drawing attention to himself; the man's animated personality alone was enough to attract attention from miles around.

"Niko!" Florian cried with joy. He vaulted over the desk and threw himself upon his friend, wrapping him up in a firm embrace that threatened to rupture organs. "You've come to rescue me!"

Uncomfortable by the show of affection and concerned for his vital organs, Niko pried the man off, holding him at arms length. He had long ago accepted the fact that Florian was as gay as a gay pride parade, but he couldn't stand his need to be so goddam touchy-feely. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"It's horrible, Niko!" the man said. "All the killing...it's worse than the war was back home! I've been stuck in this hotel for four days, alone. Afraid to go out there. And...And..." His bottom lip quivered and his soft brown eyes filled with tears. "_They killed him_!"

Niko frowned. "Who?"

"Bryce!" Florian wailed. "They tore him apart and...and..._ate_ him!" He covered his face with his hands, sobbing.

_Oh, fucking fantastic._ Niko had no idea what to do; he wasn't good at comforting people. But he tried nonetheless, patting his friend on the shoulder. Florian took it to the next level and hugged him again, hard enough to steal Niko's breath from his lungs and threaten his still healing ribs; Florian was strong for such a slight man.

"Okay..." Niko said with a strained voice. "Let go. I can't breathe."

But Florian didn't let go. He continued to hug his lungs, sobbing violently on his shirt. Niko resigned and let it happen, patting his friend on the back with an awkward-sounding, "There, there."

He had a horrible feeling this was going to take a while.

* * *

A few hours after Niko abandoned her in his petty anger, Gen set forth into ruinous Algonquin, her destination a police station off Topaz Street in Lancaster. It was the closest one to the hospital.

She set forth with a hope that she would not come across anymore psycho killers with red eyes, but after traversing a short maze of abandoned cars and rubble on Frankfort Avenue, she reached the intersection near Middle Park and found her hope dashed.

Those freaks were everywhere, as were a good many corpses.

Gen took to a higher vantage point on the roof of a nearby, still-standing building. She watched them, studied their behavior and movements. They walked about the streets in one big group as if they were all in some kind of daze. Yet Gen had spied a pair bumping into each other. What had ensued was nothing short of strange.

After the collision, the man and woman stared at each other, almost nose to nose, both making gutteral noises. The woman pressed her face closer and then they _were_ nose to nose. She growled so loud it echoed in the street. Then the man turned away and headed in the opposite direction, all by his lonesome. Gen didn't know for certain what had taken place between the two, but _something_ had happened. It was almost like the woman had outcasted the man from the rest of the group for that collision.

She also observed something strange about their faces. The killers she and Niko had come across all had expressions of mindless rage. There were no expressions of rage here; their faces were vacant. Perhaps they only went into raging killer mode when they came upon someone who wasn't like them. If that was the case, then they weren't as mindless as they seemed.

And if these people were sick, it was unlike any illness Gen had ever seen, heard, or read about.

With so many psychos blocking the way she was planning to go, Gen was forced to find an alternate route and that had been difficult. She had tried a few alleyways and back streets, but there had been too many freaks roaming around for her to get by unnoticed.

It was while she was taking a break out of sight that an idea had come to her, and she could've kicked herself for not thinking of it sooner. The sewer system. As she had seen from their behavior, the psychos kept to the streets; they wouldn't have the presence of mind to go into the sewers.

So, after taking a few sips of bottled water, Gen set about locating a manhole.

After dodging a small group of freaks, she found one and worked it open, which was no easy feat. It was heavy as sin, but she was capable of getting it open enough for her to squeeze down onto the ladder. She positioned herself on it, holding herself steady with one hand while the other tried to work the manhole cover back in place. She could only get it a few inches across the hole; it was too heavy for her to move it on her own and with only one hand to work with.

Leaving it the way it was, Gen began making her way down the ladder. She jumped off the last few rungs and landed with a small splash in the mucky sewage water below. The tunnel ahead was pitch black. Gen rummaged through her bag of supplies for the flashlight she had found back at the apartment complex. It was an LED 'forever' flashlight that needed only to be shaken up for it to work. She did this, then switch it on, illuminating the narrow passage before her with its pale blue light.

As expected of sewers, it reeked of the city's filth, the smell more overpowering than the stench of death had been on the surface. Gen made her way through the tunnel, her shoes already soaked from the dirty water, making her feet cold and numb. She kept the directions to the police station in the back of her mind so she wouldn't get lost. As long as she followed the tunnels in accordance with the streets, she would be okay.

And she tried not to think about what might be down there with her. Growing up, she had heard her share of Liberty City's urban myths, a good deal of them having to do with bizarre creatures living in the sewer system; everything from giant, albino alligators that could 'magically' swim up into your toilet, to rat-man hybrids that dragged people from the street via the storm drains. It didn't matter that she was an adult now and tended not to believe in ridiculous things like that. Any place possessing macabre history, true or fiction, had the infallible magic to awaken your inner child and all its fears of monsters lurking in the dark, especially when you were alone. Never mind the fact that there were real monsters roaming the surface.

Her throat tightened as she approached a T-section. Gen stopped and shined her flashlight in both directions, almost certain something was going to pop out at her the moment she rounded one of the corners. She listened for any strange sounds or movements, but all she heard was the soft hiss of flowing water and her own pulse in her ears. Gen consulted the directions in the back of her head and chose the left tunnel.

Rounding it, something brushed past her leg. The woman gasped and jumped away, her pulse thundering. She shined her flashlight wildly around at her feet and in the water. The beam illuminated a rat scurrying off away from her through the water, leaving ripples in its wake. Gen laughed, putting a hand over her chest.

"Just a rat," she muttered to herself. "Sewers have rats. Come on, Gen, get it together."

She turned back in the direction she had been going, still inwardly admonishing herself for being so jumpy. She aimed her flashlight in front of her. It illuminated a ghastly face. Her heart lunging in her chest, Gen shrieked and fainted.

* * *

Waking, she heard voices, soft and echoing. They were talking about someone; she assumed it was her.

"She ain't one of them," It was a man's voice, deep and gravelly. "She ain't got those red, glowing eyes."

"What's she doing down here?" Another man with a voice softer than his friend's, but his carried a suspicious tone.

"I imagine the same damn reason we're down here."

"What're we going to do with her? We can't let her stay with us. We can hardly take care of ourselves."

"Then what would you have us do? Send her back out there with those killers?"

Gen stirred from where she lay and pulled herself up into a sitting postion. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around to find herself in a different part of the sewer, a small tunnel with a moss and algae-coated grate blocking its end. It was dimly lit by a battery-operated lantern sitting between the men. Their faces were pale and eerie in the lantern's blue glow. Gen recognized the one who'd startled her in the tunnel and was dismayed to see a sleeping child, bundled up in a blanket, resting her head on the other man's thigh. He was probably her father.

_Poor kid. She must be terrified._

The men were staring at her.

Gen shifted with unease under their probing looks. "Um...hi?"

"Hi," the large man with the deep voice replied. "Sorry about scaring you, but what are you doing down here?"

"I was trying to make my way around those lunatics on the streets. Figured the sewer tunnels were the best way to do that."

The man grunted with approval. "Clever. Where you headed?"

"The police station on Topaz."

"I wouldn't bother if I was you," he said. "It's gone. Destroyed like most everything else in the city. Why you going there for?"

"I'm a cop," she informed. "I was going there hoping to find out what's happened to the city and the people out there."

The two men exchanged a look, then the large one gave a gruff laugh. "You been living under a rock for the past four days?"

Gen frowned. "No, I've been in a _coma _for two weeks. I woke up a few days ago in the hospital...to find Algonquin in ruins and lunatic killers loose on the streets. Since it seems you know what happened, you mind filling me in?"

The large man fell silent and looked away, shaking his head. It seemed he didn't want to talk about it, so his friend took up the task of explaining things to Gen.

"I don't think anyone knows what the hell is going on," he began. "Before the electricity went out, the news was saying it was some kind of terrorist attack, but nobody could figure out who was behind it. Thought they'd released some kind of biological weapon. Supposedly, some kind of cannisters were found in buildings all over the city, not just in Algonquin." The man shook his head. "Some kind of virus or something that's airborne, or _was_ airborne. Hundreds of thousands of people were getting sick left and right, going mad, tearing people apart, _eating_ them."

Gen made a face. "Lunatic cannibals?"

"Not really. More like..." He sighed. "I don't know. They want the blood; it's the only thing they take. I've never seen them actually eat flesh or anything. "

"What are you saying? They're _vampires_?" She could've laughed at the very idea. Crazy cannibals would've made _some_ sense, but vampires? Please.

The man frowned. "I don't know what the hell they are, lady. I just know what I've seen and it isn't human. Anyway, the day of the 'outbreak', the mayor had the city locked down and told everyone to stay inside. The army came that night. They bombed the bridges, even erected walls around all the islands; I guess to quarantine them. Not that it mattered. The army tried quarantining the sick from the citizens, but there's too many of them. Entire squads were getting mobbed, torn to pieces. Tried even taking them down with tranquilizers and tasers, but it didn't work. They tried everything that wouldn't result in killing sick, innocent people, but whatever disease or virus they have must make them immune to everything.

"So, there was no longer a choice in the matter. The army tried to purge them. They were just using guns and grenades at first, and that worked for a while, blowing them up and shooting them in the head...until the sick started forming larger mobs. And I mean large, like thousands in a single group. More soldiers were getting killed than lunatics. Then the army turned to fire. I swear, I saw them try to take them down with flamethrowers. It was..._God_, it was the weirdest damn thing. It didn't harm them; they walked right through it like it was nothing!"

Gen remembered the lunatic man impaled on a spike, struggling to get off it, living through it when he was supposed to be dead. She remembered the other man, too, the one she had buried three foot of metal into and he wasn't even phased by it. After seeing all that, she could believe what this man was telling her, no matter how bizarre it sounded.

"They shipped in tanks," the man went on. "But I don't know what happened after that. When tanks start rolling into town, it's time to haul ass to safety, and I thought it would be safer for my daughter underground in the sewers than in a building that's like to get blown to pieces. My neighbor here decided to come with us. For two days and two nights, we heard explosions. Shook the ground so hard we could feel it even way the hell down here. There were fighter jets involved, too. Screaming above us, blowing up shit. When all the noise finally stopped, we decided to check things out." The man sighed and shook his head. "Most of everything destroyed, looked like a damn warzone, and those lunatics were _still_ on the street, didn't even look like they'd dwindled in number. And the army, the police...gone. Just gone. We came across a few soldiers' bodies, some police officers as well, but I'm almost positive they retreated. I mean, there should've been reinforcements by now."

Gen nodded. "There should've been."

"But there's not and there probably won't be. I like to think they pulled out because they didn't want to risk the lives of the healthy people still left in the city. But who knows? We've heard rumors that this happened in other major cities across the United States, too. Vice City, Los Santos, Las Venturas. Other rumors claim this wasn't a terrorist attack at all, but some kind of infection that's spread world-wide. _If_ any of it is true, if this is so wide-spread, then so is the military. The force here may have been needed for some more important city; maybe to the nation's capital to keep our dumbass president alive or a city that's become a safe zone and needs heavy defenses to stay that way. The only fact I know is that we're on our own now."

For several long moments, Gen said nothing. All of this was difficult to take in, to believe that the people sworn to protect the citizens had just left everyone here to die. She looked at the innocent, sleeping girl bundled in her blanket and felt a surge of cold rage. Then she looked up at the man, her grey-green eyes fierce as a summer storm.

"Are there any other survivors? Have you come across any?"

"We've been staying down here most of the time, but we came across a few on a supply run two days ago," the man said. "Small groups, though. Some of them were armed, at least. The guy who told us those rumors also said there was another, larger group of survivors in Purgatory, hiding out in a strip joint. That's where he and his group had gotten their guns. Said they have a whole damn arsenal there, gathered from police stations and some illegal gun shops they came across. They're trading them for supplies, or help. I think they're trying to raise an army or something."

"Good for them," Gen said.

The man rose a brow. "You think what they're doing is right?"

She shrugged. "It's better than sitting around and waiting for help that's never going to come. We've been left alone to deal with this ourselves. What are we supposed to do? Wait the sick out? Hope they die off or kill each other? That's not going to happen. I've seen it for myself; we all probably have. The sick people out there are united against us. The only way we're going to survive is uniting against them."

"What do you think the army and the police were doing? _It didn't work._ There's too many of them, and they're all fucking invincible, to top it off!"

Gen refused that. "They're not invincible. You said yourself that the army was doing some good with guns and grenades before the freaks started forming bigger groups. There must be a way to thin their numbers. Maybe taking to the roof tops."

The man snorted. "You think the army didn't try that? From what I saw, they couldn't even make it past their own barricades without getting mobbed and torn apart. The barricades themselves didn't keep them safe for long. So, good luck finding another way. If the army couldn't do it, neither will you."

Gen frowned at him. "So, that's it? You're just giving up?"

"Who's giving up? I'm just trying to survive."

"Is this what you call surviving? Hiding out in the sewers like rats? Is this the life you want your child to have?" Gen knew she was crossing a line, but she couldn't help it. She was infuriated that this man didn't want to do something. "Because this is all she's going to know, this dark, wet, cold hole in the ground."

"At least she'll be alive!" the man shouted at her in fury, his voice resounding through the tunnel.

His friend frowned at him. "Keep your voice down."

In the silence that followed this, they all heard something, a distant sound like splashing water. Gen and the men exchanged a glance.

"What was that?" the father of the child asked.

A dreadful look came upon the face of the larger man. "I heard it before, when I found her." He nodded at Gen. "Someone's in the sewers." He reached behind him for his backpack and brought out a flashlight. "Stay here. I'm going to check it out."

The smaller man grabbed his arm before he could get up. "Sit down, you idiot. Whoever it is, leave them. We can't afford to take in anymore people."

The large man scowled at him and shook his hand off. He got up and strode through the tunnel leading from the room, switching his flashlight on.

It was eerily quiet for several minutes. Gen watched the man sitting across from her as he stroked his sleeping daughter's blonde hair. The girl looked no more than eight years old. She was just wondering where her mother was when the scream came.

It was the large man. He'd found someone.

Gen jumped up from where she was sitting, her heart pounding.

The girl awoke and clutched at her father. "Daddy," she moaned.

The man held her to him, trying to calm her. He exchanged a pale, dismayed look with Gen. He was about to speak when the scream came again, this time with words, "_RUN_!"

The father shot to his feet, lifting his daughter with him as his friend continued to shout that same word over and over until it ended in a blood-curdling, pained shriek.

"Go!" the man yelled at Gen. "Turn left out of the tunnel!"

She didn't need telling twice. Shouldering her supplies bag, she ran, trying to locate her flashlight at the same time. The man was right on her heels. Finally freeing her flashlight from her bag where one of the men must've put it, Gen lit their way, splashing through the tunnel.

"You led them here," the man behind her accused. "This is _your_ fault."

Gen didn't answer. They were approaching a T-section. "Which way?"

"Right."

She turned right, and as she did so, she could hear noise somewhere behind them, getting closer. The infected killers - she knew it was them and knew there would be more than one, there was usually more than one - were closing in. The man behind her realized this as well, for he cursed and grabbed Gen's arm to stop her.

"What're you doing?" she demanded. "We don't have-"

The man sat his daughter on her feet and pushed her toward Gen, looking at the woman with an expression of grim finality. "They're getting too close. We won't all make it. I'll hold them off, give you both time to get out."

Gen shook her head, dismayed. "No. She needs-"

"Do it," he growled at her. "There's no time to argue." He bent down to his girl, hugged her tight and kissed her forehead. "I love you, sweetie pie."

Young as she was, the girl seemed to understand what was happening, that she was never going to see her father again. She grabbed his arm, yanking on it as she sobbed. "No, Daddy! No!"

The man pulled away from her, setting determined and fierce eyes on Gen. "You take care of her, you hear me? I'll come for you beyond the fucking grave, if you don't! Left, right, left, then left again. Go!"

With that, the man turned from them and ran back the way they had come, never glancing behind him. The girl cried out and started after him, but Gen grabbed her around the waist, lifted her off her feet, and ran, remembering the man's directions.

_Left, right, left, then left again_.

And as she went, the girl sobbing and wailing in her ear, Gen knew she was to blame. She had brought the killers upon them. The blood of those men was now on her hands, and so, too, was this child's life.

In the dark of the tunnel, she heard the man's screams of agony. When they finally stopped, the only sound was the girl, crying for her dead father.

* * *

A/N: Just had to add Florian a.k.a Bernie to this story. He doesn't get near as much popularity as he should. I liked the guy; he was hilarious.


	4. Chapter 4: Prisoners

**Chapter Four: Prisoners**

* * *

**I**t had taken close to an hour for Florian to stop blubbering over his dead lover. When at last his tears dried, Niko felt it was the opportune moment to ask, "Do you know what happened?"

Wiping his face with the monogramed, lilac-colored handkerchief he retrieved from a pocket, Florian shook his head. "I was hoping you would know."

Niko frowned. "You've been here for four days. Surely you must know _something_. From the news, from other people..."

"The news is always so vague. They said it was terrorists that started all this, but not which ones," the slight man said as he pulled himself up to sit on the front desk, crossing his legs. "Supposedly, they released some kind of nasty virus on the city, but no one knows what it is. I don't think anyone knows for sure about anything, other than the fact that so many people got sick, started going nuts and ripping people apart." He flailed a hand around as he spoke. "I stopped watching the news because it was making _me_ sick. Then the hotel manager told us to stay in our rooms, so we did. But then Bryce got called away. I imagine it was about what was happening. He hadn't even called me to let me know he was okay and I was so worried. So I turned on the TV again, hoping to see him make a speech or something, but the news said he was dead, torn apart by a mob of those...those..._freaks_! Then the power went out, so I never heard anything else. I didn't care, I was _devastated_. I cried myself to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire and explosions. I thought my whole life in Liberty City had just been a dream and now I was back home, in the middle of that ugly war. I almost wish that was true; at least Bryce would still be alive. I looked outside to see those crazies attacking police officers and soldiers alike. So many. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands! So much madness. I...I was scared. I hid." He looked away, ashamed.

Niko shook his head in slight disgust. "I remember a time when you used to be a good soldier, not a wimp."

Florian drew himself up, planting his hands on his hips. "Not everyone enjoys fighting wars as much as you do, Niko."

The man made a face. "I _never_ enjoyed it."

"Perhaps not _that_ war, but you do enjoy fighting. I think it is the only thing you enjoy." Florian realized something then. "Why don't you know what's happened? Where have you been?"

"In the hospital. No one told you?"

Florian shook his head. "Are you sick or something?" A worried and dismayed expression came upon his face. "Oh, _no_," he whined. "It's cancer, isn't it?"

Niko rolled his eyes. "No, Florian, it's not cancer. I got in a car wreck; I was in a coma for a week," he replied, then changed the subject. "Where is everyone else, the other hotel guests?"

Florian shrugged. "Gone. I guess they all got scared and left, or went nuts."

"And the police? The army?"

"I guess they decided it was too much work. Or they realized it was hopeless; they were losing, after all."

Niko was not surprised, and yet it still pissed him off. "So, they just left us here to fend for ourselves?"

"It would seem so, Niko." Florian's face was pale and frightened. In that moment, seeing that fear on his face, the man had taken Niko back in time some twenty years, to when they were just boys; he looked so much like that frightened child the other village kids used to pick on. Niko had defended him once or twice, but Florian had always been more Roman's friend than his own. When most of them had gotten into the army together, Florian had impressed many with his use of a sniper rifle; a surprisingly damn good shot, as Niko remembered, and he had his bouts of courage. But, for whatever reason, that courage had vanished a long time ago.

"The fighting stopped a few days ago," Florian said. "How bad is it out there?"

"Very. Most of Algonquin destroyed and lunatics still loose on the streets. A lot of them, as I'm sure you know. I barely made it here alive."

"You have always been good at staying alive, sweetie," the man observed. "What is your plan?"

"To get to Broker."

Florian understood. "To find Roman."

Niko nodded. "But I'm stopping by my apartment first, for weapons."

"You have to take me with you!" Florian pleaded.

"I will...once you change those ridiculous clothes."

Florian looked appalled at the very idea. "But this is my best outfit! It makes my ass look good, don't you think?"

Niko breathed a deep sigh and dipped his head back as if to silently ask God why he insisted on putting him through this shit. Then he set Florian with a hard look. "I really don't think those lunatics out there care what your ass looks like. And I sure as hell don't, either. We don't want to attract any more attention than we already do. So, you have two choices. You can choose to be an unattractive, living man or a corpse in a tracksuit."

Florian blanched. "Okay, I get it. _Yeesh_. I sometimes forget how blunt you can be." He slipped off the desk. "Let's go up to my room, hon. I think I have something to wear that's not too eye-catching."

Niko would be honestly shocked if he did. "I don't think you need me to help you get changed."

"Of course not, silly. But who knows what's lurking in the hotel. I need you to be my big, strong protector," Florian said with a buffoonish grin.

Niko shook his head in exasperation. "Fine, but I'd advise you to try to remember your army experience. There may come a time when I won't be able to protect you."

Unfortunately, Florian's room was a penthouse suite way at the top of the hotel, some thirty or so floors. They had climbed up to the twenty-third floor when Niko began lagging behind, nearing exhaustion. He could remember a time when he was capable of running long distances riddled with gunshot wounds, but that seemed like a thousand years ago now. God help him, he was getting old.

"Hurry up, slow poke!" Florian called from the floor above him, a playful lilt in his voice.

"I'm not as young as I used to be," Niko complained through pants for air. Never mind the fact that not only was he older, but he'd just awoken from a coma just a few days ago, had been drugged out of his mind for three days by a crazy woman, spent half of today running from killer lunatics, and hadn't restored any of that spent energy yet.

"That's no excuse," Florian replied. "We're the same age!"

Niko didn't waste breath on a retort. He needed to conserve his oxygen for more important endeavors, like this seemingly endless climb up the stairs.

On the twenty-fifth floor, Florian let out a dismayed cry that sent Niko's already pounding pulse into dread-filled overdrive. He forced himself to rush up the rest of the stairs to meet his friend where he was standing on the landing, staring down at his feet with despair. The sole of one of his shoes had come loose.

"I just bought these shoes!" Florian cried. "They are _ruined_!"

Niko scowled at him and resisted an urge to cave the man's skull in. He'd scared him half to death, and over his goddamned shoes! He grabbed Florian's arm in a painful grip and wheeled him around.

"Your fucking shoes are the least of your worries!" he shouted in his face. "The next time you scream like that, there better be a mob of lunatics coming for you!" Florian gaped and blinked at him, and before he could reply, Niko wheeled him back toward the stairs and gave him a shove. "Climb!"

Florian climbed, knowing better than to test his friend when he was angry, yet he still felt the need to say, "You need to control your temper, hon. At your age, all that stress can't be good for your heart."

"Scaring the shit out of me for no reason ain't good for it, either," Niko groused.

Florian stopped and turned to him, clasping his hands at his chest. "You were scared for little old me? I didn't know you cared so much, Niko."

Niko glared. "Climb the damn stairs before I throw you down them."

Florian smiled and it bordered on being smug. "You wouldn't. You may act the cold, ruthless brute on the outside, but I know you're just a big softy on the inside."

Niko leaned toward him, an imposing tower. "Do you really want to find out how wrong you are?" He thrust a finger at the stairs. "Shut up and get moving, or so help me _God_, Florian..."

Florian released a dramatic sigh and started climbing the stairs once again. "If you didn't have a soft side, why did you used to defend me from those mean boys back home?"

"That was different. We were children then," he replied. "Children are soft, but we aren't boys anymore, Florian. We are men, so start acting like it."

Florian looked over a shoulder at Niko. His face was grim. "Do you know who you sounded like just then?"

Niko knew damn well who he sounded like, and didn't need to be reminded. The words he had spoken were more or less the same words he had heard the day an assault rifle had been thrust into his inexperienced hands by a large, scarred brute of a man. Niko and the others had been no more than sixteen at the time. _A gun is a man's weapon_, the soldier had said. _Only men kill with them. From this day forth, you are boys no more. You are men, so start acting like it._ But Niko had not become a man that day. It was the day he had taken a life for the first time that the boy died and the man was born, and nothing was ever the same again. Niko had never mourned the death of his innocence, nor the death of his childhood dreams. Even now he couldn't shed a single tear for what might have been. There was no point lamenting over a choice he willingly made; some small part of him had always known its price.

"It doesn't matter who I sound like," he said. "If you don't start acting like a man, you aren't going to survive what's out there, whether I'm there to look out for you or not."

Much to Niko's utter relief, Florian didn't speak another word until they had reached the top floor. There were only three suites in the hall they came upon, and Florian's was at the end on the left. The door had been left open and Florian went inside without checking to make sure if it was safe first. It didn't matter this time; the room was empty.

Niko stood in the threshold, looking around as his friend went through his wardrobe, tossing things left and right as he searched for something inconspicuous to wear. "I guess it would be pointless to ask if you have any weapons," he said.

Draping a black shirt over his arm, Florian looked over his shoulder at him with a grin. "Look under the bed, hon."

Curious, Niko crossed the room to the king-size bed, bent down, and looked under it. There was a silver, metal briefcase there which he pulled out and sat on the bed. Straightening up, he flipped the latches, lifted the lid and stared at the twin Glock 17s, nestled in their bed of black foam. He looked over at Florian, not knowing what to say. He was shocked as much as he was relieved. They weren't the most impressive guns in the world, but at least they now had a chance to defend themselves until they got to his apartment, where more powerful firearms awaited them.

Florian seemed to sense his stare as he continued looking through his clothes. "Oh, don't act so surprised, Niko. After being victim to so much brutal homophobia, I thought it was time I took defensive measures. Bryce got them for us. A fourth anniversary gift. He had our names engraved on them and everything. You can have mine and I will have his since he..." He didn't finish, but Niko could hear him starting to sniffle.

He realized he had never offered his condolences, for whatever good it would do. "I'm sorry, Florian...about your, uh...about Bryce. I know you cared for him."

Florian looked at him, smiling through his grief. "See, you _are_ soft."

Niko smiled a bit and shook his head. "Maybe a little. Don't tell anyone; it will ruin my sterling reputation."

"Ooh, your secret is safe with me, hon."

With that, Florian began to undress right there and without shame. Niko rolled his eyes and turned his back on him, having no desire to see his friend in his skivvies, or in the raw if that was the way the man went. From the briefcase, he took up the Glock with the name 'Bernie' engraved on the barrel. It was unloaded. He checked under the black foam and found two full magazines. He took one, loaded it into the Glock's mag well, pulled back the barrel slide to chamber the first round, then flicked the safety on, all with a deft and practiced hand. As he holstered the gun in the waist of his pants, he asked, "You have extra ammo, I hope?"

"Of course. In the nightstand there."

Niko pulled open the drawer and found a small box of bullets. He was hoping for more, but they would have to make do for the time being. He took the box out of the drawer and layed it on the bed next to the briefcase.

"Okay," Florian said. "How do I look?"

Niko turned to him. The man was now fully dressed in a black shirt, black jacket, blue jeans, and a new pair of sneakers. For the first time since Niko had found him in Liberty City, he looked normal. "Unassuming; not like yourself," he teased. "Which I believe was the goal."

"Oh, you are so droll, Niko."

Niko loaded the other Glock, then held it out to Florian. "Here. You point the end with the hole at your enemies, in case you've forgotten."

Florian scowled at him as he tucked the gun in his waistband. "Stop razzing me!"

Stuffing the box of bullets in his tote, Niko smirked at his friend. "Sorry, sometimes I can't help myself. If you are ready, let's go."

"Lead the way, handsome."

'Handsome' led the way, but not for as long as he might have liked. Niko had lost track of time in the hotel. When they stepped out a back exit, the sun was setting, casting gold and orange and violet hues in the sky and a few stars were already winking to life. Night was coming. They would need to find shelter before it did; the streets were dangerous enough in the daytime.

Using the back streets, they were only capable of traveling a quarter of the way to their destination, and Florian made it more of a chore than it already was, constantly jumping sky-high at every little sound and clinging to Niko like a leech. For the life of him, Niko couldn't understand why he acted this way. Where was that soldier he had fought along side? Why did Florian insist on keeping him buried? Sooner or later, he was going to realize he needed that part of him to survive now. Hopefully, it would be sooner than later.

As night descended upon the devastated island, the two men ducked into a still standing apparel shop to spend the night. They hunkered down in a back room, out of sight of any windows, and made a sparse meal out of some of the junk food Niko had liberated from the hotel vending machine on their way out.

"This is going straight to my thighs," Florian complained, frowning at the half-eaten candy bar in his hand.

Niko made a face at him and decided now was as good a time as any to voice his concerns about him. "Does being gay mean you have to always act like a fucking girl?" He tried to be gentle on his approach to the topic, but even he often forgot how blunt he could be.

Florian frowned at him. "This is who I am, Niko. I thought it wasn't a problem for you?"

"I have no problem with you being gay. I do have a problem with you acting like a girl. I don't fucking get it. Did you somehow get amnesia and forgot about all the shit they drilled into you in the army? The Florian I knew back then didn't startle at every little sound; he wasn't afraid of everything."

"Well, for your information, _smarty pants_, I didn't like who I was back then. I like who I am now. And screw you, Niko, if you don't. I'm not going to change who I am for your benefit."

"See, that is the Florian I know. He's the only thing that's going to keep you alive. That's all I'm saying."

"Your concern is noted," Florian replied with a tone of anger. "And my name is _Bernie._ You would think after four years that you would know it by now; it's not that hard to remember."

Niko sighed. "I didn't mean to offend you. I just think you can be gay and not act like every stereotype out there. There's nothing wrong with hanging on to some parts of the old you, the good parts. Like that courage I just saw a moment ago."

Florian scoffed. "Don't speak to me of courage, Niko. As I recall, we saw a lot of good, brave men die horrible, ugly deaths in that war. What good did courage do them?...What good does it do _you_?"

"I'm still alive."

The slight man gave him a disdainful look. "Some life you've led, being a Mafia _tool_. Killing people left and right. Being so obsessed with revenge you wasted a decade of your life on it. If that is the life courage leads to, then I would rather be a coward; a frightened _girl_, as you would so eloquently put it."

His words stung Niko. Some part of him thought he'd asked for it, but he was too angry now to entertain that notion for long. "Yes," he snapped. "And as I recall, the murdering, revenge-obsessed piece of shit sitting before you now has saved your ass more times than you can count. Never mind the fact that you're capable of defending yourself. But _no_! You would rather fit to these stereotypes. You would rather be just another recycled gay guy right off the fucking assembly line. And for what, Florian? To fit in, to be accepted? You're fucking pathetic."

Florian stared at him, his expression fierce. In that instant, Niko was almost certain Florian would sock him in the nose for his big mouth, and he would have been glad for it, but then the small man's lip quivered and he started crying.

"You can go straight to hell, Niko, you...you big..._jerk_!"

Niko sighed. _Why couldn't I have just kept my damn mouth shut?_

* * *

The sobbing child clung to her neck as Gen summoned all of her strength to push the manhole cover aside. It was near impossible to do one-handed, but she didn't have a choice; her other hand was the only thing keeping them steady on the ladder.

She pushed and pushed and pushed until the muscles in her arm burned like fire, and at last, the warm glow of sunset spilled in from above them. Gen climbed up a few more rungs to better position herself, then pushed the manhole cover some more until there was enough space for them to get through. She popped her head up through the hole as far as she could without bumping the girl's head and looked around to make sure it was safe. Seeing nothing but an empty street laden with debris, she stepped down the ladder a bit, then said to the girl, "Grab the ledge and pull yourself up."

Sniffling, the girl let go of her neck, Gen supporting her with a hand as much as she could in her awkward position. The child reached for the rim of the manhole and pulled herself up through it. Gen came after her. Finally upon the surface, she moved the manhole cover back in place. That was when the girl started to protest.

"Daddy's still down there!" she said. "We can't leave him!"

"We have to, sweetie. This is what he wanted, to keep you safe." She reached for the girl. "Come on, we need to get off the street. It's getting dark."

The girl backed away from her, defiant. "No! I won't leave him!"

Gen knew some part of the girl understood her father was gone; she'd seen it for herself when the man had said goodbye to the child, but the girl's grief was in control now. Gen knew what she had to do, but she didn't relish having to do it.

She knelt on a knee before the girl and took her by the shoulders. "He's dead, baby. He died so that we would live. If we go back down there for him, we'll die, too and his death will mean nothing. Do you understand?"

The girl's face was torn up, a mask of emotional agony. It was heart-rending beyond words. "But...I want my Daddy! _I want my Daddy_!"

Gen gathered her into a hug. "I know you do. I'm so sorry."

The girl hugged her neck, sobbing again, and Gen took the chance to lift her up. Holding her against her hip, the woman looked around to figure out exactly where they were and was surprised to find that they were just a few blocks away from the police station she had been trying to make her way to. She could see it down the street, and as one of the men had told her, it was in utter ruins. There went her chance at getting her hands on some proper weaponry and finding out what the hell was really going on. The girl's father had claimed the police and military were gone, but she'd been hoping that wasn't true. Then again, maybe it wouldn't have mattered. By the way his story had sounded, it seemed _no one_ knew what was going on.

She also noticed something else she had been told about. The wall. It loomed in the distance, tall, dark, and imposing. From her position, she could only guess at its height; it had to be around ten feet high and solid concrete. The walls had likely been shipped or helicoptered in.

_Prison walls_, Gen thought, grimly. _That's exactly what they are; no way out. They've turned us all into prisoners."_

In the other direction, near the Topaz-Frankfort intersection, the mobs of lunatics roamed aimlessly about the street. They were too far away to notice them, and even if they did, Gen would have a good chance of eluding them, as long as her part of the street remained deserted.

_God, if you're up there_, she prayed, _give us a chance to get off the street_.

Gen had never been religious, but she swore to herself then that if her prayer was answered, she would convert. She might even become a nun if she and the girl lived through this.

Hoping there was a God on her side, Gen set forth into the street, heading for the Albany-Topaz intersection. The girl's sobbing had finally turned to quiet crying, though she still blubbered for her father every once in a while. Gen tried to soothe her as best she could while she traversed the maze of abandoned vehicles and destruction in the street and kept her eye out for roaming maniacs. When she reached the corner where a Terroroil gas station had once stood but was now nothing more than ruins blackened with carbon dust, Gen froze in her step, noticing several things that left her shocked.

The first thing to catch her eye was the wall she had noticed earlier from down the street. Her guess at its height wasn't accurate. The wall had to be at least seventeen foot and the army had gone the extra mile and added barbed wire along the top of the wall.

The next thing she saw was the East Borough bridge. There was nothing left on the Algonquin side but part of the street where it had risen up to make the bridge. The rest of the bridge's remains had found a watery grave. She could see slabs of broken concrete and parts of the metal structure poking out of the river. Further off, she could see that the bridge had been severed from Bohan and Broker as well. The only true evidence that a bridge had ever existed here was the lonely toll station, hovering over Charge Island, and the broken, jagged on-ramps that had once fed the tiny island's streets to the bridge.

For the life of her, Gen could not accept why they had done this, why they had cut them off, left them all here without any way to defend themselves, why they had just given up.

_We really are on our own._

Disgusted, Gen made her way onto Albany Avenue to find some place to stay for the night. Half way up the street, she saw a burnt-out hulk in a crater in the middle of the road. A burnt-out hulk that had once been a tank. It had likely been bombed by aircraft; the girl's father had mentioned fighter jets, and that was the only logical thing that could've destroyed it. Why it had been destroyed in the first place, she could only guess. Perhaps it had been an accident, friendly fire.

There were mangled and burnt corpses strewn around it and trailing down the street, military and civilian alike. Walking around the disaster, Gen noticed a severed arm on the ground, the blood at the ruined stump having long ago dried up. She could just make out a tattoo on the forearm, the Marine seal.

Where the police and military had failed, what chance did the rest of them have at succeeding, surviving? She tried not to think about that.

Gen kept her eye out for a useable weapon, but, as she expected, she found none. After passing a strip of destroyed shops, she came upon what looked like an apartment complex still standing. She decided this was probably as good as it was going to get for a place to spend the night; they would at least find beds to sleep in and perhaps even non-perishable food items. If she was lucky, maybe she would find some better supplies and weapons. Hell, at this point, she'd be grateful for a butter knife.

Gen tried the door first, finding it unlocked. Pushing it open, she stepped into a small lobby and made straight for the emergency stairwell. It was quiet in there as she climbed the stairs, so quiet she realized the girl had stopped crying and wondered if she had gone to sleep; she was limp in Gen's arms. Better to remain ignorant about it than to wake the girl up and have her sobbing all over again. Sleep would do her some good, a lot of sleep.

When Gen reached the third floor, she pushed through the door there, deciding that floor was good enough as any to search for an apartment to make use of.

She tried the first door she came to and found it locked. They were all likely to be locked, so instead of wasting time looking for what she wouldn't find, she sat the girl on the ground so she could get through the door. The child was awake, her eyes puffy and bloodshot from crying. She stared at Gen with inquiry.

"We're going to stay at this apartment for the night," the woman said to that look. "Stand back."

The girl backed away and Gen kicked the door in, eliciting a startled gasp from the kid.

"You can't do that. Someone might live in there," she said.

Gen hadn't thought about that, too intent on finding shelter. It didn't matter; the door was kicked in and she hadn't been shot or attacked for doing so.

"Stand right here by the door while I look around," Gen told the girl.

The kid obeyed, clutching the frame of the door and watching Gen as she entered the apartment.

The woman called out for any occupants and received no answer, then she did a thorough sweep of the entire apartment, finding no residents, dead or alive.

"It's safe," Gen called to the girl. "Come in and shut the door."

She did so, then stood in the midst of the living room, staring about warily. "Is it really safe? From the bad people outside?

Gen nodded. "As safe as it's going to get; as long as we're quiet, we should be okay. Are you hungry?"

"Um..." The girl looked uncertain. "Maybe a little."

"Well, have a seat on the couch and I'll see if I can find something for you."

"Isn't it wrong to take other people's stuff without asking? Daddy..." Despair came upon her face, tears welling up in her eyes. "He used to say I shouldn't take stuff without asking."

"Things are different now, sweetie. The people who lived here, they may be sick or they're not alive anymore, so they have no need for any of their things. Even if they are okay, I don't think they'd mind us taking what we need to help us survive. Do you?"

The girl considered this, then shrugged. "I guess not."

Instead of sitting on the couch as Gen had told her to do, the child went about exploring the living room as the woman searched through the kitchen cabinets for food. There wasn't much but canned items. Gen took a few of them, all fruit, and found some silverware and a handheld can-opener in a drawer. She brought the stuff into the living room, sitting it all on the coffee table.

"A family," the girl said.

Gen looked at her, confused. "What?"

"A family lived here," she said, pointing at the framed photos on the walls. "See. They even have a little girl, like me."

Gen stared at the photos, her face sad. The framed pictures had been arranged in such a way as to document the wonderful moments for this family in chronological order. It started with a wedding and continued with the birth of the couples daughter, her first birthday, first day of school, all leading up to what Gen assumed was the present day. The last picture was of the small family with a large group of others, the small Middle Park lake in the background. It looked like a family reunion, and the daughter had to be no older than ten.

_Yes, they had a little girl_, Gen thought. _Who's probably dead or insane. The whole family probably is_. She shook her head. It did no good to think like that.

"So they did," Gen said. "Come on and sit down. I found some canned fruit." She tried to make it sound like a good thing, but the girl didn't seem too interested.

She came over and plopped down on the couch. "What's going to happen now?"

Gen sat in a recliner across from her and started opening one of the cans. "Right now we're going to eat and get some rest. Tomorrow, we're going to go to the strip..." She trailed off, deciding it was better not to tell the kid they were going to a strip joint. She was afraid the girl would ask what a strip joint was, and she particularly didn't want to have to explain that. "We're going to a safe place."

"There's a safe place?" The kid seemed genuinely surprised by that.

"Your dad seemed to think so. He told me there are people there, survivors like us. Maybe they'll let us stay."

"But what if they don't?"

Gen slid the opened can of mixed fruit and a spoon across the table to the girl. "We can only hope, sweetie."

"Daddy said once that hope is everything," the child said. "So, maybe that's all we need."

Gen forced a smile. In her heart, she knew they would need more than just hope to survive. "What's your name?"

"Eve," she replied. "Like the first woman in the Bible."

"Pretty. I'm Gen."

"That's pretty, too," Eve said as she dug into her can, shoveling fruit into her mouth. So much for the girl only being a _little_ hungry.

Gen opened a can for herself, and the two females ate their sparse dinner in silence. When it was gone, the woman ushered the girl to a bedroom so she could get some rest. There was a protest about her not being tired enough yet, but Gen assured her that would change once she was comfortable in a bed.

The girl was fast asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. Gen covered her up with several blankets to ward off the chill in the apartment, then sat down in a chair in the room to try and get some rest herself.

But rest didn't come easily, only the tears did. She cried. She cried for the men she had gotten killed, cried until she was too exhausted to cry anymore.

* * *

A/N: One thing I never understood in the game was how Florian had wartime experience and yet he could hardly defend himself. Never made sense to me. Unless I missed something. Any thoughts out there?


	5. Chapter 5: Not Your Typical Reunion

**Chapter Five: Not Your Typical Reunion**

* * *

**D**uring the morning hours of the following day, Gen and Eve searched the apartments on the third floor for anything that might aid them on the journey they would be making to the strip joint in Purgatory.

Their search hadn't yielded much to start. Gen had found a large backpack to better carry her supplies and there was plenty of space for more, and she had also found the girl a backpack to carry what she needed, too.

Then they came upon an apartment that Gen assumed belonged to a 'prepper'.

As she and the girl explored the living room, Gen had noticed a shelf full of books with titles like _Guide To Surviving An Apocalyptic Event, 101 Ways To Kill Zombies, The Survivalist's Handbook, Building Your Survival Arsenal On A Budget, Yellow Rubber Ducks and Pink Golf Balls: A Mind Control Defense Guide_, and many other similar topics. There wasn't much else of interest in the living room, so Gen moved on to the kitchen while Eve continued looking around on her own.

The kitchen cabinets were stocked full with canned foods and emergency rations; it seemed the owner of the apartment had been a prepper after all. Gen wondered where that person was now as she put a mixture of the food items in her backpack. Most likely they were dead or had gone nuts like everyone else. She found that sadly ironic.

Gen traversed a hallway that led from the living room to where the bathroom and single bedroom was. She found a top-of-the-line first-aid kit in the bathroom and put that in her backpack, then moved on to the bedroom.

Putting her pack on the bed, she searched a nearby chest-of-drawers and smiled with pleasure as she found a .357 magnum Smith and Wesson revolver hidden under the pairs of men's underwear in the top drawer. She grabbed it and, with a flick of her wrist, popped the cylinder open. The chambers were loaded. Gen wasn't too keen on using a revolver in a situation like this; they were good for home and self-defense, but wouldn't do much good against a horde of lunatic killers.

She shrugged. _Still better than nothing._

Gen searched the rest of the drawers for extra ammo, but found none. There had to be some hidden somewhere.

Tossing the revolver on the bed, she stepped over to the closet and opened the door to look there. Gen thrust the clothes aside on their hangers and looked around at the bottom of the closet for an ammo locker or anything else that might hold ammunition. Nothing. There were some shoeboxes on the top shelf, but she was disappointed to find that there were actually shoes in them.

_Who the hell keeps their shoes in shoeboxes?_

Gen tapped her foot around the floor of the closet, listening for any hollow spaces and looking for any loose boards; any decent prepper would have an arsenal of weapons hidden away, unless this particular prepper hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Ever since the Department of Disease Control had released a zombie apocalypse preparation guide on the internet, 'prepping' had become a fad. That had been a year ago. But trends tended to last a while, so people were still just getting into it. Hopefully that wasn't the case for the person who had lived here; she hoped they had taken it serious.

Gen felt and knocked along the walls, finally hearing that sound she'd hoped for. There was a hollow section behind the back wall of the closet. Gen pushed against it in all directions until it began to slide to one side. The wall panel opened up fully, exposing the small arsenal it was concealing.

"Holy horseshit," Gen breathed as she looked upon the numerous weapons with wide eyes; shotguns, rifles, pistols, a machete, a Ka-Bar combat knife, all held to the wall on metal mounts, and all but the blades illegal to own.

_Thank God for serious preppers._

How she wished she could take all of it with her, but alas, she could only carry so much.

Feeling somewhat like a kid in a toy store, she picked out two Glock 17s, the very gun she had used as a police officer. It would be her secondary weapon; two for duel-wielding. Next, she looked at the assault rifles and chose the Colt M-16A2 for her primary weapon, and it was another one she was familiar with.

Her father had been a Marine and a gun enthusiast. Being a daddy's girl, Gen had taken an interest in his interests at a young age and he'd started taking her on frequent trips with him to the gun range, and taught her how to shoot a pistol. When she'd gotten old enough, he'd allowed her to try out his M-16. She still remembered the first time she'd shot it with his help. She had been seventeen at the time, small and thin for her age, and she had shrieked at the gun's intensity, her father laughing at her reaction until there were tears on his face.

How she missed him and wished he were still alive and there with her; he would've known what to do, he would've known just what to say to make her feel less afraid. But he was dead and she was alone with a little girl's life in her hands. She couldn't afford the luxury of being afraid.

Gen searched the wall alcove the guns had been placed in and found many boxes of myriad types of ammunition and extra magazines, as well as a tactical sling for the M-16. She took what she needed for her guns, sitting everything on the bed, then went back to the arsenal to get the machete and Ka-Bar. She was just attaching the Ka-Bar's sheath to her belt loop when she heard the sound of gunshots from outside and the girl's voice from the living room, frantic.

"Gen! Come here! _Quick_!"

Dread quickening her pulse, Gen rushed out. When she came to the living room, the girl was standing by a window facing the street, her eyes wide. The woman let out a sigh. Thank God the girl was okay.

"Come away from that window," she demanded.

Eve didn't move. "There's men down there, Gen." She looked back at the woman, her face creased with anxiety. "They're in trouble. There's a lot of crazy, sick people out there."

Gen hurried to the window and looked out, her eyes widening.

There were two men down on the street, surrounded by a group of at least fifteen lunatics. The loonies were split in two groups to flank and trap them. One of the men, who was strikingly familiar to Gen, was trying to ward off the right flank with his handgun. He'd downed two of them so far. The other, smaller guy was standing behind him, trying to do the same to the left flank, but even from where she was she could see and hear the man's terror. He shrieked as he shot his gun, panning it around wildly, not even trying to aim. _Wasting bullets_, she thought. But his fearful firing did at least some good. It was keeping the freaks at bay, but that would only last as long as the man's bullets.

"I know one of them," Gen said. "The jerk left me to fend for myself."

And for probably two seconds, she considered doing the same to him. They were heavily outnumbered. Even with guns, they were likely to end up lunatic food; neither one of them would have enough time to reload before they were overwhelmed. But it wasn't in Gen's nature to abandon anyone in their time of need; she was a cop and she had too much of her father in her.

"Do _not_ leave this apartment," she told the girl. "Keep the door shut and locked, you hear me?"

Eve nodded, her blue eyes wide. "Okay. You're going to help them?"

"I'm going to try."

With that, Gen bolted back into the bedroom, grabbed the M-16 and one of the full, thirty-round magazines, then left the apartment. She descended the stairwell two steps at a time as she loaded a mag into the assault rifle.

Reaching the lobby, Gen never hesitated. She burst through the front door to the sound of gunfire, and came out onto the sidewalk.

Leveling the assault rifle, she fired on the closest lunatics and perforated them. Their bodies jerked about like marionettes being manipulated by a seizing puppetmaster, blood ejecting from their numerous wounds.

The two non-lunatics looked around at the sound of a different kind of firearm, sighting her on the sidewalk.

"Get inside!" Gen yelled at them.

The man she knew by the name of Niko grabbed his friend's arm and dragged him off into the apartment building while Gen covered their escape. He then positioned himself at the door as Gen backed toward the other, still firing on the handful of men and women left standing and advancing on her in their rage. The others were either dead or too injured to move at the moment.

Three shots rang out from the man's gun and three lunatics died with bleeding holes in their forehead. Gen blasted the rest of them, and they dropped like flies.

She marched over to the bodies, firing two rounds into every head still drawing breath. She didn't relish it, but it was the only way to make sure they didn't get up again; she remembered all too well the other lunatics she'd come across, impaled and refusing to die properly.

Once the grisly task was done, Gen shouldered her assault rifle and came back into the building.

Niko stared at her as he holstered his gun in the waist of his pants. He didn't look happy to see her, if his hard expression was any indication. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

"Nice to see you again, too," she replied with an iceberg tone. Now that lives had been saved, it was back to holding grudges. "I could ask you the same thing."

"I _live_ here."

"Hold on," the smaller man said, looking between them. "You two know each other?"

Gen's face was sour. "Unfortunately."

"That is an understatement," Niko replied, his tone petulant. "We met at the hospital. A lunatic there tried to kill her, I saved her ass, and in gratitude, she had me fucking drugged out of my mind for three days."

"Umm..." his friend started, but Gen cut him off.

"Jesus fuck, let it go already! You'd probably be dead if I hadn't drugged you. And I don't think I need to remind you that you would've been dead a few minutes ago, too, if it wasn't for me."

Angry and ever the stubborn one, Niko crossed his arms at his chest and gave the woman an uncompromising look. "I didn't need your help. I had it handled."

Gen laughed. "Sure, if 'handled' means you were about to be torn apart and _eaten_."

Niko took a threatening step toward her and Gen lowered her M-16 from her shoulder, aiming it at him. "_Back off_."

The smirk he offered was nasty. "Or what? You going to shoot me?"

"I'm not that soft. I'm going to jam this assault rifle up your ass, _then_ I'm going to shoot you."

The small man jumped between them before things could get any uglier. "You both need to calm down. We're all on the same side!"

"Tell that to him," Gen replied, glaring hellfire at Niko. "He's the one who insists on riding out some unnecessary grudge."

"Fuck you."

She snorted. "No, thanks. You're not my type."

"Don't flatter yourself. You will be the last woman on Earth before those words become a proposition."

"Enough already!" Bernie disrupted. "We can't act like this when we're all we've got!"

Gen rose a brow, lowering her firearm. "_We_?"

"Yes, we," the man replied. "You two seem to know each other and we're all here together now. So, we might as well _stay_ together."

Gen considered this while Niko gave Bernie a disapproving look. "If _you_ want to team up, fine," she said. "But not him. I should've left _his_ sorry ass out there to get torn apart."

"If you had the guts, you would have," Niko replied with a rough tone. "You talk tough, but that's all you do."

She gave him a cold smile. "Be glad that I don't have the guts, or _yours_ would be all over the sidewalk out there. I choose to have a heart; I wasn't thinking about the fact that you left me behind to fend for myself because you're a vindictive asshole. You were in trouble and I wanted to help. So, you can _thank_ me anytime you like."

"Don't hold your fucking breath."

"Fine. When you find yourself surrounded by another mob of killers, don't hold yours, either."

With that, Gen spun on her heel and marched off to the emergency stairwell, hoping she never saw the man again.

When she was gone, Bernie turned to Niko, a hand braced on his cocked hip and an angry look on his face. "What are you trying to do?"

"What are you talking about?" Niko replied, angry and frustrated, and wishing he had more lunatics to shoot at to vent those things.

"She just saved us and you drove her off. We need her."

"The hell we do. Once I get up to my apartment, once we have those guns, we won't need anyone."

Bernie huffed. "You have some nerve, getting on me about remembering my army experience. Yet you seem to be forgetting the most important lesson we were taught. Never leave a man behind."

"She's not a man, as far as I can tell," Niko pointed out. He said it just to be an ass; he knew his friend was right, but he didn't like that he was right. He just wanted his guns and to get as far away from that damn woman as possible. Just being in the same building with her ate at his nerves.

Bernie frowned, irritated. "You know what I mean!"

"And she's not one of us, either. She's a fucking cop. If she hadn't been in a coma when all this shit happened, she would've retreated with all those other assholes who left us to fend for ourselves. She is one of _them_."

Bernie shook his head. "I think she proved a moment ago that she isn't. You may not want to hear it, but she risked her own life to rescue us."

"You're right, I don't want to hear it."

"The fact remains."

A dark, irritated look inhabited Niko's face. "Shut the fuck up, Florian. Or maybe I'll consider leaving you here with her since it seems that's what you want."

"What I want is for you to stop acting like a stubborn, petulant child! My God, Niko, how can you leave this poor woman on her own, knowing what's out there? Where is your compassion?"

"Gone." _Along with my patience. _"Look, she doesn't need us anymore than we need her. She made it this far and was capable of finding something to defend herself with; she's done fine on her own. Besides, I can't afford having someone else slow me down."

"Someone...else?" Bernie looked wounded. "Me? So, I'm just a burden on you, is that what you are saying?"

_Shit._

Niko shook his head. "That's not what I-"

"Well," Bernie cut him off, drawing himself up. "I won't be a problem anymore, Niko. I will join her after all. Maybe she won't think I'm just..._dead weight_."

The man stomped off in a fit of insulted dignity.

Niko called after him to no avail. One of these days, he was going to learn to keep his mouth shut. Hopefully he would learn _before_ it cost him a friend, if it hadn't already.

* * *

Bernie climbed the stairwell as fast as he could, hoping to catch the woman before he lost her. If he couldn't find her, he was going to be on his own again, and he was not looking forward to tha; he didn't like his chance of survival on his own. And he had his pride, too. He couldn't go back to Niko, knowing he was only a burden on him, not wanted or appreciated.

_Well, so much for friendship_.

He felt like crying. Bernie had thought their friendship meant something to Niko, but there wasn't much that mattered to him aside from his family. Yet, Bernie could hardly blame him for choosing his family over a friend. Just about anyone would've done the same thing in the horrid situation they all now found themselves in. It was probably best they go their separate ways; he didn't want to be a problem for Niko when so much was at risk.

If he couldn't find the woman, then perhaps he could find an apartment to lay low in until things got better outside. He figured there would be enough food around to live off of for a while, but then he thought of the loneliness he would have to endure. He had always been a social creature. How long would he be able to be on his own? How long before he cracked and threw himself to the lunatic mobs outside?

Bernie shuddered at the thought and somewhere above him in the stairwell, he heard a door being opened.

"Hey!" he shouted as he pushed himself up the stairs faster. "Wait! Come back!"

One more floor of climbing and Bernie found the woman waiting for him on the landing. He released a sigh of overwhelming relief. "Please, take me with you."

She looked at him for a moment, then asked, "Are you sure? I would think you'd want to stay with..._him_." She grimaced, as if the word had come with a nasty taste.

"He made it clear that I'm just slowing him down."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Why doesn't that surprise me? Well, if you want to come with me, I'd welcome your company. You're better off without him, anyway; he's prone to abandoning people he doesn't agree with."

Bernie smiled a little. "Don't be too hard on him, hon. He's a real sweetie once you get to know him."

"I doubt that."

"He's just worried about his family."

"I couldn't care less, and considering the way he's made you feel, you shouldn't care, either," the woman replied with icy tones. "Come on, we're staying in an apartment on this floor."

"We?"

"Yeah, it's just me and this kid I came across...and now you."

Bernie's face filled with dismay. "You found a child out _there_?"

"Sort of," Gen said, then waved her hand dismissively. "It's a long story." It wasn't really, but Gen had no desire to get into it. The guilt she felt over the death of Eve's father and his friend was still deep.

When they entered the apartment, Bernie saw the girl the woman had spoken of, sitting on a couch. She hopped up from her spot and hurried to Gen, wrapping her little arms around the woman's waist.

"You're okay!"

"Of course," Gen replied with a small laugh as she hugged the kid back.

Eve peered around her waist at Bernie, smiled, then looked up at Gen with admiration. "You saved them!" Then she looked at Bernie again, realizing there was only one man where there should've been two. "Wait, where's the other man I saw on the street?"

_Who cares?_ "Around in the building somewhere, I guess," Gen replied with a shrug.

"Are they going to be staying with us now?"

Gen nodded her head at Bernie. "He will, but not the other one."

The girl frowned. "Why not? Won't it be safer if we're all together?"

"Ooh, she's a smart little doll," Bernie remarked with a smile.

Gen smirked at him, then said to Eve, "Yes, it would be, but that man isn't very smart. We're not going to the same place he is, anyway."

"Where _are_ we going?" Bernie asked.

"There's a place in Purgatory a man told me about, a safe place."

"I'm glad you have a plan, hon, because I am completely horrible at thinking them up."

"You don't need to be good at coming up with plans, just good with that gun you got."

"It may surprise you, but I was a soldier once. I know how to use it, but um..." He looked embarrassed. "It's been a while."

"Army?" Gen asked.

"Yes, but not your American army."

"I noticed you have a similar accent as your friend. Where are you from?" Since Niko had never been forthcoming about it, she figured she might get a straight answer from his friend here.

"Former Yugoslavia, now present-day Serbia."

"Ah," Gen said, then she realized something. "Wait a minute, you were a soldier over there? You fought in those wars?" She frowned. "You don't look that old; you had to be only a kid then."

Bernie flopped back in a chair, crossing his legs. "I was sixteen. There were a lot of adolescent soldiers in those wars, some even younger than me."

"Jesus Christ," Gen breathed with dismay. "_Children_."

"Niko was one of them, too," the man revealed. "We were in the same squad together."

Gen wasn't certain what to think about that. In a way, it explained Niko's hard and aloof personality, but then the man sitting in the chair had the same experiences as him and he was his complete opposite; this man was warm, open, and friendly. "So, that's how you know each other?"

"Oh, I knew him long before that. We grew up in the same village; we've been friends since we were boys."

Gen shook her head; she just didn't understand it. "Friends for so long and he makes you think you're a burden on him? Does he treat all his friends this way?"

"You have to understand, hon. His cousin, his only family here, is out _there._ They are very close, like brothers. He would do anything for that man, anything to keep him safe. If that means leaving behind a friend, so be it."

"Well, you're more understanding than me. I think he's a complete asshole." And yet even believing that, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the man, for both of them, for the horrible things they must've seen and endured, and at such a young age.

"If you had to make a choice between a family member or a friend, which would you choose?"

"Both," she said. "The alternative is giving one of them a death sentence, and that's something I could never do. The fact that he could make the choice so easily should tell you what kind of person he is. Maybe you don't know him as well as you think."

"You're just assuming," Bernie said. "What makes you think the choice was easy for him? You just want to make him look bad because you're mad at him."

"And you want to make him look good because he's your friend." She shook her head and waved a hand in the air. "I don't want to talk about that asshole anymore. He annoys me even when he's not around."

Bernie laughed. "What's your name, hon?"

"Geneviève, but most people call me Gen."

"Oh, how lovely. Like a name for a heroine in the romance books I like to read!"

She rose a brow and gave an awkward laugh. "Thanks, I guess. What's your name?"

"My given name is Florian, but I changed it to Bernie when I came here."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Bernie."

He smiled, pleased that she was calling him by the name he preferred, unlike _some_ people he knew. "It's nice to meet you, too." He looked over at the girl. "And what's your name, little princess?"

"I'm Eve."

"It's nice to meet you, Eve."

"Well," Gen said. "Now that we're all acquainted, let's get you armed, Bernie."

"Armed? I am armed, as you noticed," he replied as he stood from the chair.

Gen grinned and tossed an arm about the man's shoulders, leading him off to the bedroom. "Oh, I mean _properly_ armed. To the teeth."

* * *

It took Niko a whole of fifteen minutes to gather his guns together. He had chosen as his primary weapon the Colt M-16A2 assault rifle, the very gun Gen had saved his ass with earlier, a fact he would forver have trouble coming to terms with. His secondary weapon was the Remington 870 Tactical shotgun. He kept the Glock 17 Bernie had given him, too, seeing as how he had the extra ammo for it, and because of the popularity of the cartridge it used, he doubted he would have too much trouble finding more when he ran out, even in a city where guns were illegal.

Once he had all the required ammunition packed away with his supplies in a small duffel bag, he tested the total weight of everything and didn't find himself encumbered.

Ready as he was going to get, Niko left his apartment and headed back down the stairwell. When he came to the third floor door, he paused. He felt guilty for hurting Bernie's feelings, and that guilt had deepened when he'd heard Bernie's brief conversation with Gen in the stairwell earlier. While it was true that he was slowing him down, Niko had no intention of leaving him behind, either.

He stepped through the stairwell door and began his search for his friend, knocking on doors. He got an answer at the third one, across from the stairwell. A moment after his knock, the door was thrown open. Gen stood there, aiming a pistol right between his eyes.

Niko put up his hands and backed away. "Easy!"

Gen frowned and lowered the gun. "Scared the shit out of me."

Sighing, Niko dropped his hands to his sides. "Who were you expecting? Those freaks? I doubt they're going to bother knocking on the door."

Her eyes narrowed and her frown deepened; she did not like the fact that he'd made a good point. "What do you want, other than to annoy me with your existance?"

Niko's jaw clenched as he bit back a retort. He didn't want to get caught up in another argument, as they would likely spend all day in the doorway, going at it. There was no time for that. "I've come for Florian," he said through his teeth.

"His name is Bernie," she corrected him with a haughty tone.

"Whatever. Where is he?"

"Inside."

Niko moved forward, but the woman moved with him, sticking an arm out to block his advance. "He doesn't want your company anymore," she said, her voice frigid. "And neither do I. So, you can kindly fuck off."

His hands curled into tight fists. _Fuck it. If the bitch wants an argument, I'll give her one she won't soon forget_. But the moment he opened his mouth, a voice spoke up from inside the apartment. A small, girlish voice; the voice of a child.

"Who's there, Gen? Is it the other man, the one you said isn't smart?"

The woman looked back over her shoulder, grinning at the kid. "Yeah. Just stay on the couch, sweetie. Don't worry about it." She looked back at the man standing at the open door and noticed he was no longer alone.

There was another man moving in behind him from the stairwell, a man with a face bulging with veins and twisted in rage and with eyes glowing a menacing red. And he was a big one; obese, yet whatever was wrong with him, it made him unusually fast. He let out a deafening roar and lunged for Niko. All that ensued next happened almost simultaneously.

Startled by the hellish shout, Niko wheeled around, reaching for the Glock tucked in his jeans. Before his hand even found the grip, he heard a bang that made his ears ring, felt something zip by within an inch of his face, and there was a child's frightened scream. A hole appeared in the enraged man's forehead. The bullet that ended the luantic's life didn't end his heavy body's forward momentum. Gen jumped away as the dead man collided with Niko and sent them both crashing into the apartment, three-hundred pounds of corpse landing on top of the living man. Niko groaned in pain, certain everything in his duffel had just rammed into his back.

The girl was still screaming. Niko could hear Gen trying to calm her down as he attempted to get out from under the dead man threatening to squash him into pulp.

"What happened!?" came the different, but familiar voice of a panicky Bernie.

Niko growled as he continued to struggle with the body. "I would _really_ fucking appreciate it if someone could get this damn corpse off me!"

Bernie's surprised face hovered over him then. "Niko! You came back for me!"

They both worked together to roll the dead lunatic off him, then Bernie helped his friend to his feet. Niko felt something wet and sticky on the side of his face and neck. He touched a hand to it and it came away black. "What...?"

Confused, Niko glanced down at the dead man. The hole in his forehead was leaking something as black as ink. Blood? He hadn't remembered the other lunatics bleeding black. So, why was this one? Disgusted and horrified, he scrubbed hard at his face and neck with a sleeve, scrubbed until it hurt; whatever this shit was, he didn't want it on him.

Once the girl had been calmed, Gen came over to the men, setting stormy eyes on Niko. "You brought this asshole here," she accused. And almost an instant later, she felt a tinge of guilt for it. Had she not been blamed of that same thing, back in the sewer tunnels? A part of her knew it wasn't his fault, but she wanted someone to blame. Given her anger at him, he was the perfect target.

"No, I didn't," Niko snapped at her. "I came from upstairs; the way was clear."

Gen opened her mouth, but instead of some angry response, she let out an exclamation of surprise. Through the open door, she saw more lunatics, rushing into the stairwell door's threshold, at least six of them. "Shitting Christ!"

Niko saw them, too. He slammed the door closed and Gen jumped forward to lock it. A moment later and the door banged on its hinges. They braced it with their combined weight.

"Shit," cursed the man.

"We can't hold this door against them; they're too strong," Gen noted as it was banged upon again, the impact nearly throwing her off balance. "Bernie, get that couch over here!"

"On it!" Bernie said as he hurried to the dead lunatic to move him out of the way first. He struggled with the body until Gen moved from the door and grabbed the dead man's legs. Together, they hauled the corpse away.

"Holy...why the hell is his blood _black_?" the woman asked.

"Not the time!" Niko growled, struggling to hold the door closed.

The lunatics outside banged against it again and almost threw the man from it. Gen saw the door bow in from the force and tossed herself against it, bracing her stance.

Bernie grabbed an end of the couch and pulled it toward the door. Eve jumped to help, pushing at the other end. Niko and Gen moved out of the way to help them wedge the couch up against the door just as it was pounded upon for the umpteenth time.

"That isn't going to hold them, either," Gen said, her tone grim. She turned to Bernie. "Take the kid and go to the bedroom. Barricade the door, do whatever the hell you have to do to keep her safe."

The man nodded and went to the girl, taking her by the hand. "Come on, sweet one."

Eve stared at Gen, tears on her face, as Bernie pulled her toward the hall that led to the back bedroom. "Be careful!" she pleaded.

Gen forced a smile for the kid's benefit. "Don't worry, baby girl. We'll be fine."

When they were gone, Niko looked at the woman with an expression she couldn't read. "I didn't bring them here."

Gen sighed and made a face. "I know it." She turned and hurried to where she had left her belongings near the hall. She took up her M-16, switched it to its three-round burst setting, and turned back, smirking. "Shall we?"

Niko unburdened himself of his duffel bag, then slung his own M-16 from his shoulder. "As you Americans say, let's rock and roll."

They lined themselves up with the door and fired on it, pocking holes in the surface and sending an explosion of wooden slivers around. Two thirty-round magazines had been unleashed.

"Hopefully none of them survived that," Gen said afterward.

She checked to make sure, kneeling on the couch and peering through the jagged cracks their bullets had created in the door's surface. It looked clear, but then she saw something move out there, a shadow. An instant later, she saw red eyes peering back at her, and before she could back away, a hand smashed through a crack and wrapped itself around her neck. Gen let out a strangled sound, and out of reflex, she grabbed onto the lunatic's wrist, trying to break his grip on her. It was painful and immensely powerful; she was certain her windpipe was being crushed.

Niko dropped his empty M-16, pulled his Glock from where it was tucked, and fired a few rounds into the door, aiming his shots up a bit from where the hand came from. It lost its stranglehold on the woman's neck and she scrambled back, falling off the couch in her escape.

Niko stood over her and extended his hand to help her up. "You okay?"

"Fantastic," she croaked, slapping her hand in his. When she was on her feet, she rubbed at her sore neck with a grimace. "I've never felt strength like that in another human being before. A second later and he would've crushed my throat."

"You're welcome."

She laughed, but not too enthusiastically; even talking hurt. "Yeah, thanks. Guess we're even on all accounts now."

"I guess so."

"Think they're all dead now?"

"Only one way to find out," Niko said. "I'll move the couch, you cover the door."

Gen nodded and retrieved her M-16 from where she'd layed it on the couch. After loading a fresh mag into it, she aimed it at the door, inclining her head to him. "I'm ready when you are."

Niko moved the couch away, then, leveling his Glock at a ready position with one hand, he brought the door open with the other, backpedaling in a rush in case any lunatics decided to invite themselves in.

There were more dead bodies than living ones; some bullets had gotten lucky to find heads, but there were two lunatics still drawing breath. One was crushed beneath the small pile of corpses and wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. The other, the only one that could've tried to strangle Gen, was laying atop the others and had suffered a shot to the shoulder and chest.

Gen was surprised to see that it was a woman. "Oh, my God," she breathed. "_She_ tried to strangle me? That can't be possible. A woman can't possess strength like that. I mean, look at her... she's smaller than me."

"After all we've seen," Niko said, stepping up beside Gen. "I think it's safe to assume that _anything_ is possible."

He leveled the Glock on the lunatic woman. She stared at him with those unnatural red eyes, met his gaze, her face still twisted up. A hand reached out to him almost as if she were pleading for help, or mercy.

Niko shot her in the head. Twice. Then he turned the gun on the last one still breathing, and added more blood to the floor.

Standing in the splash zone, Gen stared down at her blood and brain-splattered pant legs. "Oh,_ gross_! Thanks a lot, Niko. I liked these pants."

"Oh, I'm sorry, would you rather I had let them live?"

"No, but a little warning next time would be appreciated."

"Duly noted. Now shut the door before more of them show up."

Gen didn't like being told what to do, but she did it nonetheless, mostly because he made sense. Once the door was shut, they wedged the couch back up against it to provide them with some kind of security.

Afterward, Gen looked down at the obese corpse, at the ink-black trails running down between his dead, red eyes. She frowned. "Black blood."

"Yes," Niko said, mirroring her look. "And it's only him. The others we killed weren't bleeding this shit."

"Why? Why is it _black_?"

"Who fucking knows. If these people are carrying some disease, maybe he was sicker than the rest."

Gen flopped back on the couch and sighed. After a moment, she looked at Niko, curious. "Hey, I thought you were all hell-bent on being on your own. Why'd you come back for Bernie if he's just going to slow you down?"

"He is my friend," Niko answered. "His slowing me down doesn't change that."

Gen's brows rose in surprise. _Well, maybe he's not a _complete_ jerkwad, then. Shocking._

"I saw the East Borough bridge earlier," he said. "Some inconsiderate asshole destroyed the way I was planning to go. Do you know if all the bridges are like that?"

Gen spared him a regretful look. "Yeah, that's what I was told by this guy I came across. All destroyed to quarantine the islands."

Niko sighed and sat on the edge of the couch, as far away from her as he could manage. "What I feared. And the wall?"

"It surrounds all of Algonquin, and the other islands have them, too. Liberty City is now a chain of prisons, the way I see it."

"Appropriate," Niko replied, feeling rather contemptuous toward the army that had given up on its people and trapped them with all these lunatics.

"That guy I came across also told me the army tried to purge the maniacs out there. But they failed. This guy claimed he saw soldiers go at the nutjobs with flamethrowers and the nutjobs were completely unaffected by it; they didn't burn."

"This guy sounds like a nutjob himself," Niko observed.

"Hey, anything is possible, right? Anyway, you can thank the military for bombing the bridges and erecting our prison walls. It's a control measure and not really that surprising when you think about it. I really don't think they want this disease or whatever it is or these maniacs getting loose across the country; if they can walk through fire, I doubt they'll have trouble swimming to mainland America. Of course, the guy I talked to said there's rumors floating around that this has happened in other cities, perhaps even world-wide."

"Rumors aren't to be relied upon."

"Rumors often have a grain of truth to them."

He really didn't want to get into this, so he took the conversation in another direction. "So, the army retreated?"

"Apparently. The guy said they went at the lunatics with tanks and aircraft, but he'd taken to the sewers for safety, so he didn't witness the war that unfolded. Just heard all the racket they were making. When all the explosions stopped, he checked outside to find most of Algonquin destroyed, lunatics still on the streets, and no sign of the army or the police, except a few of their bodies. That was several days ago. Since there have been no reinforcements, I think it's safe to assume they gave up on the city."

Niko scoffed. "Nice message to send to all of us normal people. 'Fuck all of you, you're on your own.'"

She rose a brow. "Compared to the rest of the population of the United States? Yeah, fuck us. For all we know, the rumors are true; this could be happening everywhere. Maybe they needed all the manpower they could get and decided Liberty was beyond saving. That's what the guy I talked to seemed to think. It's war and we're just a tragic, but acceptable sacrifice."

Niko stared at her, annoyed that she would speak of things she had no understanding of. "What would you know about war?"

For once, Gen didn't take offense. "I'm a cop; I go to war every time I go to work. And my dad was a Marine. Several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and during both Gulf Wars. He had his stories, none of them pleasant."

"Stories aren't experience, and until you've witnessed children and your friends get shot up and blown apart, I really don't think you can consider what you do as going to war."

Gen shrugged. "War has many faces, Niko, and while I've never seen children die horrible deaths, I'm no stranger to losing friends in the field."

Niko had nothing to say to that, mostly because she had a point with her former statement and there was also a chance he had killed one or two of her friends; he'd killed a _lot_ of cops since coming to Liberty City.

"You know, for what it's worth," she added. "I'm sorry you had to see shit like that, that you had to experience it at such a young age."

His brow furrowed. "How do you-"

"Because you're sensitive to the subject. Besides, your friend Bernie had a thing or two to say about it."

Niko didn't care for Bernie talking about him to this woman. It took very little to have them at each other's throat, so the last thing he needed was for her to find out about his sordid life as a hitman. She would likely try to arrest him, jail cell or no jail cell.

He could've done without the sympathy, too; he didn't want it, need it, or deserve it. "There's no reason to feel sorry. It was my choice." And that was that; he had nothing more to say on it.

Gen could take a hint. She changed the subject. "So, I take it you want to team up now?"

Niko nodded. "I think it would be safer if we stick together for a while, until I find a way to Broker. That is, if you'll have me."

Gen grinned. "You annoy the shit out of me, Niko, but it seems you're damn good with a gun. For that fact alone, I think I can force myself to deal with you. Consider yourself haved."

"Great," he replied, his tone cheerful as a funeral.

* * *

Once Gen covered the corpse in the living room and retrieved Bernie and Eve from the bedroom, they all sat down and discussed their plan with Niko.

"So, that guy I mentioned to you before," Gen began. "He informed me that there's a group of survivors holed up in a, um...adult entertainment club in Purgatory. Said it was a safe place."

"I don't think there's any place safe in this city," Niko said.

"Well, safe enough, then," she replied. "They have guns, a lot of them. That man I talked to seemed to think they're gathering an army together for something, maybe to try to purge the lunatics on their own."

"Suicide. If the army couldn't handle it, what makes them think they can?"

"That's what the guy said. I'm of the opinion that it's better than sitting around, waiting to get torn apart. In any case, I think this safe enough place is our best option at the moment. At the very least, we might get more information from the people, maybe something to help you get into Broker." She paused for a moment before venturing on, "And I'll help you myself, any way I can."

Niko gave her a mixed expression of surprise and curiosity. They hated each other's guts, and she was offering to help him? So, of course, he had to ask, "Why?"

"Because I'm a cop; protecting and serving is what I do, even for big jerks like you. Besides, as Bernie said, we're all we've got, so we have to protect and help each other; we're stronger together."

Bernie clapped. "Oh, well said."

Gen gave him a funny look and shook her head. "I may not have anyone left, Niko, but I get it. If I still had family out there, I'd be doing all I could to reach them, too. Since I don't, maybe I can help you find yours."

Niko thought that was uncharacteristically kind of her, but he still shook his head. "I'm not asking you to help me."

"I know you're not. I'm offering."

"I don't accept."

Gen laughed and looked over at Bernie where he sat on the floor with Eve. The girl was curled up next to him, fast asleep with her head on his thigh and the man was absent-mindedly braiding stands of her hair. "Is he always this stubborn?"

Bernie smiled. "Honey, you have no idea."

"It's too dangerous," said Niko.

Gen looked at him, brows raised. "Compared to what? You _have_ been outside, haven't you?"

"You know what I mean. It might be more dangerous in Broker than it is here."

"I don't see how. Broker is nearly the same size as Algonquin. It has an estimated population of two-hundred thousand. Say a little over half of that number was infected or whatever. Compare that to Algonquin's population and its likely infection rate and I'd say the level of danger is the same."

"Okay, smartass," Niko replied with disdain. "Then I will put it to you simply. I don't want you going out of your way for me only to get yourself killed. I don't need that on my conscience; there's enough weighing on it as it is. Besides that, you get on my damn nerves. I really don't want to be around you any more than I have to."

Gen ignored that last bit. "Why would it be on _your_ conscience when it's _my_ choice?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you are doing it to help me, as you say?"

She shrugged. "Still my choice."

"I said no."

"I don't care what you said. You can't keep me from doing it."

Niko bristled. "You think so?"

Things were starting to get hairy again, so Bernie changed the subject before a fight broke out. "So, are we agreed? We're going to this boobie bar in Purgatory?"

"Like I said, it's our best option at the moment, unless _someone_..." She looked pointedly at Niko. "Has a better idea."

The former hitman shrugged. "As I see it, it's our only option."

"Then I guess we're all agreed."

"How are we going to get there?" Bernie asked. "Our chances on foot aren't good. We should take a car; there's plenty to choose from."

"Don't be an idiot," Niko said. "We would never get a vehicle through all the shit clogging the streets. It'll attract too much attention, anyway. A car would be a death trap."

As they fell silent for some moments, Gen realized they had another option, one she wasn't too confident in considering it hadn't worked out well the last time, but she put it forth anyway. She didn't like their chances on foot, either. "The sewers. I was using them to get around until..."

"Until what?" Niko asked, suspicious of where this was headed.

She looked uneasy. "There was a, um...an incident. That guy I talked to, he was Eve's dad. I met them and a friend of theirs in the sewers. Lunatics followed me...I didn't know, I couldn't get the manhole covered all the way. I didn't think they would be smart enough to follow me down there..." She shook her head with a drawn-out, dreadful sigh. "Eve's dad and his friend were killed; the kid's dad died so me and the girl could get out. If there's only those two lunatics down there, it might be safe enough to use now that we're all armed."

"That's a big if," Niko said. "I think we should just stick to the back roads, like me and Florian have been doing."

"That's not my name, _James_," Bernie retorted. "I'm going to start calling you James until you get my name right."

Niko rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"If you recall," said Gen. "The back roads didn't work out too well for you both the last time."

"I'd rather go up against these lunatics on the streets than in a cramped, dark tunnel. Wouldn't you?"

"Okay, good point," she grudgingly admitted. "I guess it's the streets for us, then. Unless..."

"Yes?" Niko prompted. "You have another bad idea to share?"

The woman made a sour face at him. "_Anyway_, does either one of you know how to man a helicopter? If so, we might be able to find one if we come across a police precinct still standing. That'll be your ticket into Broker, too."

"Niko does," Bernie announced. "He knows a guy who has one, too."

Gen gaped at Niko. "Why didn't you tell us this before?"

"Maybe because we're here and the guy I know with the helicopter is in Broker, and we have no way of contacting him. We should just stick to the original plan for now. It's too dangerous to be running around the city, looking for a cop chopper we probably won't find anyway, especially when we've got a kid with us. There is a good chance someone used those choppers to escape this shit."

No one spoke up against that.

"Why are we not sick?" Bernie asked. It had been a question he'd had on his mind lately.

It was met with expressions of inquiry from the other two.

"There's tons of whackos out there. If they're all carrying the same virus or disease or whatever, it has to be contagious. So, why aren't we sick?"

"Maybe it's passed on through body fluids or something," Niko guessed. "I really hope that's not the case since that fat fuck over there bled black all over me."

"Eve's dad said a news story claimed it was airborne, that there were cannisters found around the city that had supposedly released..._something_. And apparently, it didn't last in the air long enough to affect every corner of Liberty. That doesn't really make sense to me, considering how many lunatics there are out there, but then it doesn't make sense that this could be passed along through body fluids, either. I mean, anyone they attack and feed on they don't leave alive; this wouldn't have been able to spread like it did. Whatever happened, I think we were all just lucky to be in the right place at the right time." Gen breathed a short laugh. "Never thought I'd be grateful for being shot in head."

"Maybe we _are_ infected," Niko proposed. "But maybe it ain't as bad for us as it was for everyone else."

"I don't think it works that way, not for something this serious," Gen said. "I mean, those people out there act like they've got a severe case of the rabies."

"Rabies is transmitted through bite, not in the air," Niko pointed out.

"I know that, dummy. That's why I said it's _like_ they have rabies. Maybe it's an airborne strain of it or something." She scoffed. "I bet you a thousand bucks some mad scientist created this damn thing and probably sold it off to some terrorist group."

"Huh, we finally agree on something. Only mankind could create something this fucked up."

"You? Agreeing with _me_?" she replied with a dry tone. "Well, if that isn't cause for celebration, I don't know what is." Gen got up from her arm chair and went into the kitchen to look through the cabinets for something strong to drink. She hadn't been completely sarcastic in her remark.

Her search yielded a bottle of whiskey made in the great state of Tennessee. She gathered three glasses together and took everything back to the living room, sitting it on the coffee table. Gen took a seat and poured them all a drink.

"I really don't think we should be getting drunk in a situation like this," Niko said.

"One little drink won't hurt," Gen replied. She looked up at him, grinning. "Unless you're a sissy who can't hold your liquor."

Niko grunted. "If we weren't fighting to stay alive, I would drink your scrawny ass under the table."

"Oh, that sounds like a challenge," Gen said. She slid a glass across the table to him, which he caught in his hand. "You know what, tough guy? If we make it out of this alive, consider that challenge accepted."

Niko tipped his glass at her. "I will hold you to that."

Gen gave a curt nod, then slid the last glass over to Bernie. She lifted her own for a toast. "To our health."

"And our lives," Niko added.

"May they both outlast the freaks outside," Bernie finished, rather poetically.

* * *

A/N: I wonder if any of you GTA fans out there can guess who wrote the book _Yellow Rubber Ducks and Pink Golf Balls: A Mind Control Defense Guide _that Gen had noticed on the book shelf.

To the 'Guest' reviewer asking about Luis and Johnny, I'll just say they might be making an appearance, but I don't expect them to have any major role.

To alexisg200: I have plans for Bernie, but I'm not going to give them away. He might surprise you, and he might not. ;)

Thank you both for sharing your thoughts!


	6. Chapter 6: The Gathering

**Chapter Six: The Gathering**

* * *

"What would you be doing right now if crazy hadn't come to town?" Gen asked Niko, tired of the silence.

They had gotten some much needed rest last night, but moods were still bleak, understandably. The entire morning had been tense and quiet, and Gen thought it was about time someone said something.

She and the man were seated across from each other at the coffee table, taking on the task of loading bullets into magazines. Sitting at the kitchen table, Bernie and Eve were finishing up their breakfast of canned fruit in silence.

Niko regarded the woman with a face that was all business. Since meeting the guy, Gen had rarely seen that face look like anything else and she wondered if the man had ever known a moment of fun or pleasure in his life. Or if he just had a stick permanently lodged up his backside.

"I don't know," he answered.

The woman rose a brow. "You don't know? I mean, don't you have a daily routine, like normal people?"

"Not really. I just take life one day at a time, and no day is ever really the same."

"Well, you seem like the kind of guy who'd get bored with routine anyway."

"Maybe, maybe not. I've never experienced it." Even living the straight and narrow path, his life had not been without spontaneity. Especially when Roman and Brucie were involved in it, and especially when they were drunk.

"Why not?"

"I just haven't."

Gen made an exasperated face. "Still intent on being mysterious, I see."

Niko's mouth twitched. Gen thought he was going to smile, but he didn't.

"Still intent on solving me, I see," he replied. "What would you be doing?"

"What we're probably going to be doing for the rest of the day. Running."

"For your life?"

She chuckled. "Well, when you think about it, what else do people run for if not their lives? Running keeps me healthy and fast. Criminals like to run, too, you know."

"Why did you become a cop?"

"I actually wanted to be a Marine, wanted to follow in my dad's footsteps. Then..." She paused, struggled to go on. There was an expression of pain on her face, too deep to be physical. "Something bad happened," she continued. "It made me want to be a cop instead."

"What happened?" he asked, a little more curious now.

"My twin sister was raped," she replied. Her voice was stiff. "She had her bouts of depression afterward. She saw a therapist and took medication for it. She got better. Then one day, I found her in our basement. She'd hung herself. There was no suicide note. She'd always been the mousy twin, didn't like to make a fuss about anything. She was the good one, where I was the bad one. It shouldn't have happened to her. It should've been..." She stopped, swallowed down on the lump in her throat. "She was only sixteen."

Niko understood the pain of losing a sibling, but he couldn't imagine what it must be like to lose a twin. They were said to be closely bonded, from the womb to the end of life. Then there was the fact that Gen had more or less seen herself die. "God...I'm sorry, Gen."

"To make matters worse, the cops couldn't find her rapist, so I decided that I would. I wanted this man to rot in a prison cell for the rest of his life."

"I'm surprised you didn't want him dead."

"Oh, I did. I dreamt of making him suffer worse than what he made her suffer, even told my dad about it. He said hate serves no purpose; the only thing it does is-"

"Consume you," Niko finished for her.

Gen nodded. "And once it does, it destroys you. He'd already lost one daughter; I wasn't going to make him lose another. For a while, finding justice for my sister was the only thing that mattered. But the job, it changed things, put them into perspective. Though I never stopped looking for her rapist, being a cop became more than just about my sister. She's gone, and that's never going to change. But there's people out there like her, people I _can_ help."

"You never found the man who raped her?"

Gen shook her head. "And now I never will. I think a part of me has always known I wouldn't. The search was hopeless from the start. Nothing to go on but a location."

"That's it? She didn't see what he looked like? There were no witnesses?"

"No, it happened in a secluded place. The asshole grabbed her from behind and never said a word. He might as well have been a ghost."

"Maybe the piece of shit will get ripped apart by lunatics...if he hasn't already."

"Sometimes justice has a way of working things out for itself. A shame I'll never know it if it does."

"At least you moved on. Not everyone knows how to do that," Niko said, and moved on. "You speak of a father and sister, but not a mother."

Gen tilted her head a bit, smirking. "Is that a subtle request to know more or a passing remark?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you expect a lot of answers for a guy who rarely gives any in return."

Niko shrugged and went back to his task. "Don't tell me then."

"There isn't much to say, anyway. She died when I was five. Barely have any memories of her. It was only me, Giselle and dad for the longest time. Then just me and dad. Now..." She shrugged. "It's just me."

"I disagree," he said, glancing up at her. "There are three people here with you now. You are not alone, Gen."

She offered a soft smile, touched by him for once. "You know what I meant. But...thanks, I know what you meant, too."

He returned a smile, full and genuine. Gen may have not liked much about the guy, but she liked that smile; it caught in his eyes, changed his whole face, made him markedly less flinty.

"You should do that more," she said.

"Do what?"

"Smile. You have a nice smile."

"Oh, uh...thanks." He looked away, shifting in his chair.

Gen understood the compliment had embarrassed him and tactfully pushed the moment on. "So, have you forgiven me yet for doping you up on Valium?" Of course, her subject of choice _wasn't_ so tactful, but she was curious to know.

"That's what you were giving me?"

She nodded. "A ten-milligram pill a day. Pretty strong stuff."

"I will never accept your reason for tricking me," said Niko. "But I will let it go." His face hardened. "Don't deceive me again. I won't forgive it a second time."

She grinned and put her hands up. "No, sir. You have my word, sir. I will never do anything like that again..._sir_."

Niko made a face. "Cut it out."

Laughing, Gen stood from her chair, grabbing her loaded mags from the coffee table. She put them in her backpack, within easy reach, then turned to the others. "Well, I'm ready when you guys are."

When everyone was prepared, the quartet set out for the wasted streets. Niko was their point man and Gen took up the rear, keeping the weaker of their group safe between them.

They worked their way up Albany Avenue where the Algonquin Bridge had once stood. It was an effort to avoid the Middle Park area where that large group of maniacs seemed to enjoy hanging out.

The streets were strangely deserted. No one questioned it at the moment, but it made Niko suspicious. He had expected to run across at least one or two lunatics, or a small group, as he and Bernie had the day before, but they hadn't seen a single one. Where were the roamers? And why had they just suddenly vanished?

The street ended in devastation. A section of the bridge had collapsed over it, blocking it off. The Civilization Committee building nearby was nothing but ruins, a victim of the bridge's intentional destruction. The burnt out hull of an Annihilator was half-buried in the rubble. One of its rotor blades stuck straight out toward the sky and some patriot, probably dead or insane now, had attached Old Glory to it. It flapped pathetically in the breeze, the cloth torn and singed.

Gen stared at it as Niko led them right onto Lorimar Street. She wondered what the point was for putting up that flag. It wasn't like seeing the stars and stripes would give anyone hope. It was just a reminder that the ones sworn to defend them had left them all to die.

She had an intense - and perhaps irrational - desire to climb up the debris and rip that flag down. It mocked them and that made her sick with anger.

The group neared an intersection where the battered Columbus Cathedral stood. Where the entrance once was was now nothing but an enormous, jagged hole, scorched at the rim. There was a burnt out tank in front of the church and the blackened, skeletal remains of a soldier slumped over the hatch. There were more black skeletons laying around the tank and a few soldiers' bodies were sprawled out at the intersection, as well as quite a few civilians. All the corpses had either been torn apart, had their throats ripped open, or were burnt beyond recognition.

There was a sudden sound, coming from the right side of the intersecting street. Niko put up a hand to halt everyone there at the approach to the intersection. He stepped up to a corner building and peered around it, then made a quick gesture for everyone to take cover. The group ducked into the corner shop through its broken display window, their point man standing with his back to the wall, looking around the window's frame. Gen gestured Bernie and Eve to the back of the store where it was safe enough, then she joined Niko, kneeling down and peering out to see what was what.

The loud shuffling sound they had all heard grew near, then the two at the window saw them. A horde of lunatics strode through the intersection and turned right on Lorimar, away from the shop. And they kept coming and coming; there had to be at least a hundred of them.

The former hitman and the cop exchanged a brief, alarmed glance. They didn't dare make a sound; that was all it would take to end their lives there.

They watched and waited.

Gen found the sight odd. The horde was traveling as if they had a destination in mind. None of them paused, not even when they bumped into each other. They didn't look around, either. Their red eyes remained fixed ahead. This was unlike the lunatics she had come across. They had usually gone about the streets like aimless zombies or hung out in one spot, just waiting for some unfortunate to walk into their midst. There was intent here, a goal they were after.

When the last of them passed by, Niko leaned through the broken window, looking around, then stepped out and up to the street corner. He stood there for a moment, watching and listening, then came back inside the shop.

"The street is clear," he announced.

Bernie and Eve came from the back of the shop, the man holding the girl's hand. "Lunatics?" he asked.

"A damn horde of them," Niko said.

"At least a hundred," Gen added.

Bernie looked aghast. "Sweet Jesus."

The woman looked at Niko. "Did you notice anything about them?"

"Other than the size of their group? No."

"I don't know what the lunatics you guys came across acted like, but the ones I came across didn't act like what we just witnessed. They usually just roam around or hang out at Middle Park. That horde was _not_ roaming."

"So?"

"People stop acting a certain way for a reason, even lunatics. They were moving like they knew where they were going."

"I don't see why it should matter to us," said Niko.

"It might be important. If we can figure out why-"

"No," he cut her off, already having a good idea what she was going to say. "I don't care to figure out what's wrong with them or why they ain't acting like they usually do."

Gen ignored that. "Learning what we can about them might save them; it might shed some light on what's happened to them. Maybe they can be...fixed, cured."

"Like I said, I don't care about them."

"No, all you care about is finding your family, right?"

"Yes," he snapped. "That _is_ all I care about."

"And what if they're sick like them, Niko? Did that ever cross your mind?" She knew it had; she could see it on his face. "Wouldn't you want to know if there's a way this can be fixed?"

"They are _not_ sick," he declared with fierce stubbornness.

"Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself? The fact of the matter is, _you don't know_."

"No, I don't fucking know!" he exploded, frustrated with her. "Is that what you want to hear!?"

Unmoved by his outburst, Gen carried on, "If we follow them, we may get all the answers we need or we may get none, but shouldn't we at least try while we have the chance? Just like you want to find out if your family is okay, I want to find out if these people can be saved."

"Why? What do they matter to you?"

"They matter to me because they're people in need of help; they aren't to blame for what's happened to them. And helping people is my duty, Niko."

He shook his head. "You are living in the past, Gen. You ain't a cop anymore."

"I am," she asserted. "It's not just a job, it's a state of mind. I took an oath to protect and serve. That isn't going to change."

He laughed. There was no amusement in it. "Protect and serve? By _killing_ them everytime you step outside?"

"What choice do I have if they try to kill me? It's not like I _want_ to. I obviously can't kill them all, so maybe the ones that live can be helped."

Niko gave her a disgusted look. "No. I want no part of it, Gen. I'm not going to risk my neck just so you can feel like a fucking hero."

"Fine," she growled through her teeth. "Then I'll go by myself."

He frowned. "Then you're a fool."

"I'd rather be foolish than heartless," she shot back as she stepped through the broken window.

Following the street the horde of lunatics had taken, Gen heard Eve calling out for her.

_I'm sorry, baby girl. I have to do this._

The woman set out into a jog. Everything inside her told her this was important; there were answers where the lunatics were going. And answers would save them all; answers would end the madness.

* * *

"You can't let her go out there alone," Bernie said to his friend as he tried to soothe the wiggling and crying girl.

Niko snorted. "Funny. That is _exactly_ what I'm doing."

Bernie frowned. "Then she's right. You are heartless."

"Why? Because I have no desire to walk into a horde of killers, as she's going to do?"

"That is exactly why! You know she will and you would let her. The Niko I know is a strong, brave, lovable sweetie; he has _some_ integrity. At least I thought he did."

"What the hell would you have me do, Bernie? Risk our lives for nothing? Risk the kid's life for nothing?" He heaved an enormous sigh and shook his head. "It's her decision and it has nothing to do with us. We're moving on."

"_You_ are moving on," Bernie amended. "Eve and I are going with Gen."

"You can't be serious!"

"I can and I am. Some of us know how to stick by our friends."

Niko scoffed. "You met the woman a day ago and now she's your friend?"

Bernie shrugged. "Yes, and in a day, she has been more of a friend to me than you have. She hasn't seen me as a burden on her."

_Yet_, Niko thought and instantly hated himself for it_. _"I said I was sorry about that," he replied. "Stop riding it."

"You said no such thing," Bernie argued.

"Well, I'm apologizing _now_. Do you honestly think I would have come back for you if you're just a burden? You are my friend, Bernie, even if I haven't been acting like it. But you have to understand, I have to find my family; I can keep them safe. But I _can't_ do it if I'm injured or dead."

"I do understand, hon, but you have to realize that Gen made a good point. What if they are sick?"

Niko wished to God that people would stop asking that. He already had the possibility tattooed inside his head; people didn't need to keep reminding him of it. "I don't know, Bernie. I can only cross that bridge when I come to it."

"We have come to a bridge now, Niko, one that might lead to answers."

"That is a long shot, at best."

"It's still a shot."

With a drawn out sigh, Niko began to consider it. And as much as he did, every reasonable part of him kept telling him it was stupid and insane; it was suicide.

Then the girl clutched his arm.

When Niko looked down at her, she stared up at him with those big blue eyes, tears and fear and a plea in them. "Please, we can't let her go alone. The bad people might hurt her. _Please_." She shook his arm, as if to make him understand. "We have to stay together!"

_They might hurt you, too, little one_, he thought but didn't have the heart to say. And God help him, he didn't have the heart to deny her what she was asking, either. Here he was, a hard man who'd lived an exceptionally hard life, a man who'd killed people and some without hesitation, about to bend to a little girl's will. In a way, he found it cruel that a mere child could make a grown man cave, especially when what he was caving to could get him killed.

Eve was attached to Gen, likely saw her as a guardian or replacement parent. She was all the girl had since her father was dead and a mother had never been mentioned. It would be cruel for Eve to lose someone else.

"Fine. We will go with her." He made a bitter face. _I can't believe I'm doing this._

Eve smiled happily and hugged him, pressing her face against his shirt. "Thank you."

"Uh...sure," Niko replied, awkwardly patting her on the head.

Bernie grinned. "You've made the right decision, Niko."

"We shall see. Let's go. Hopefully we catch up to the idiot woman before we lose her."

The three of them left the shop and didn't have to go far. Just passed the church at another intersection, another horde of lunatics was passing through, turning right on the street. It wasn't as big as the last, but they were taking the same course as the others. The group parted around an obstacle in the street. That obstacle was Gen. She stood in their midst, still as a statue and facing the direction the horde was moving. One lunatic actually bumped into her, but the man continued on as if nothing had happened. They had to be aware of her, but for whatever reason, they had chosen to ignore her.

This wasn't right. If there was anything consistant about these lunatics it was their senseless bloodlust. Maybe Gen had been right. Whatever was happening to these lunatics, it might be important. If they could figure out what was making them act this way, they could use it to their advantage and get around the city easier.

The three of them stepped out into the street from the alley they had been hiding in and headed for Gen. The woman caught their movement and turned to them, her eyes wide with shock.

"Tell me you just saw that!"

"We did," Bernie said. "That was crazy! They walked right through you!"

"Well, I'm glad you guys saw it, too. I thought I was hallucinating or going nuts."

Eve broke ahead and threw herself at Gen, squeezing the woman's waist in relief. Gen put an arm around her and smoothed a hand through her hair.

Niko scowled at the woman. "You really are a damn idiot. You could've been killed."

Gen grinned. "Aw, were you worried about me?"

He scoffed. "No."

"Then why did you follow me?"

"I did it for the kid," Niko said, his tone cold. "I didn't have the heart to deny her all she has left. You might want to start taking your responsibility for her a little more serious."

"I wouldn't have left her at all if I didn't think she was safe with you and Bernie."

"She's not our responsibility."

Gen shook her head. "You still don't get it. We're in this together; we're _all_ each other's responsibility."

"Then you should have never gone running off after those freaks. You should have stayed with us."

The woman stuck a hand on her hip. "And you should have come with me," she countered.

"Please, this is not the time for arguing," Bernie protested.

"You saw it," Gen went on. "One of those lunatics bumped right into me and didn't even look at me. Are you seriously going to stand there and keep denying that something important is going on?"

"No," Niko grudgingly admitted. "So instead of standing around _talking_ about it, let's try to find out what it is."

"Right," Gen replied. "They seem to be heading for Star Junction."

Niko made a sweeping gesture with his hand and said with a mocking tone, "Ladies first."

Gen laughed at him, shaking her head. "You're so charming, Niko."

"And you are getting on my last damn nerve, woman."

She shrugged, smiling. "It wouldn't be the first time, and it probably won't be the last."

Her voice may have said 'probably', but the devilish glint he saw in her eyes assured him of it. At that point, Niko was almost certain that if the red-eyed lunatics didn't end up killing her, he would; he may not be able to help himself.

Following the way the hordes had gone, they were led to Star Junction. The area was a mass of destruction, most of its landmark skyscrapers and buildings in ruins, but it wasn't the destruction that had the quartet's attention. It was the massive gathering of lunatics.

"There has got to be _thousands_," Gen said as they all huddled in an alleyway near the Banner Hotel.

"Why are they gathering like this?" Bernie asked from behind her, as if anyone had an answer.

There were more lunatics coming in from other streets around the area, climbing over debris to join the main crowd. Some of them were standing on rubble, still as stone and facing something, though no one in the alley could see what it was. There were numerous destroyed tanks around the street, surrounded by the horde. Quite a few of the loonies had found or were finding a perch on the remnants of the combat vehicles, shoving others off to make room for themselves.

"We can't see shit from here," said Niko. "We need a better vantage point."

He looked around the alleyway, but saw no reachable fire escape.

"The hotel," Gen suggested. "We can climb the stairs to the roof."

"Good idea," Niko said, showing a hint of a smirk. "For once."

Gen slapped him upside his head for the remark. Laughing, she darted off for the hotel before he could retaliate.

"Oh, you _bitch_," the man growled, then he set off after her.

Bernie and Eve were the last to enter the hotel, their two friends already bursting through the emergency stairwell door. When he and the girl followed, they heard Gen's taunting voice, echoing in the confines, "You're slower than molasses, Niko!"

"I will catch you eventually! And when I do, you will pay for hitting me!" he called back.

"You started it!"

Bernie shook his head as he and the girl began making their way up the stairs. "Like children, those two."

"They like each other," Eve said, sagely.

Bernie looked down at her, brows raised. "What makes you think _that_, of all things?"

The girl shrugged. "Even if they do argue, they still try to get to know each other. You don't do that if you don't like someone."

Bernie laughed. As stange as it sounded coming from the mouth of an eight-year-old, it kind of made sense. He had never considered the tension between his friends as being something other than dislike. He still wasn't sure what it was, but Bernie wished the kid had saved her commentary for when the other two were around; he would've loved to seen their faces.

When they exited through the roof door, they found Niko and Gen near the ledge, lying low on the roof to keep out of sight, just to be on the safe side. Neither one was bleeding or in pain, so it seemed the view had taken precedence over revenge, and with good reason.

There were more lunatics gathered than they had at first thought. It might have looked like a typical New Year's Eve event in Star Junction if not for the destruction and the fact that it was November. And if all the people weren't red-eyed and batshit crazy.

They were all ringed around a single person standing atop a tank still in mint condition, dressed in all black and with a hood shrouding the head.

Bernie and Eve squatted down on the roof not too far from their friends, watching. Frightened by the scene, the girl shook like a leaf in a hurricane. Bernie put an arm around her shoulders, offering what comfort he could.

"Tens of thousands," Niko observed. "What are they here for? They ain't doing anything from what I can tell."

"Not yet," said Gen. "But I think they will." She looked over her shoulder for Bernie and Eve. "There you are. Bernie, let me see your Dragunov."

The man slipped the rifle's strap over his head and slid the firearm across the roof to her. Gen supported her elbows on the roof's ledge, aiming the rifle toward the person in the midst of the crowd. She peered down the scope just in time to see the person remove their hood. The woman gasped in horror.

"What are you seeing?" Niko asked.

"_Jesus Christ_..." Gen said. "That person they're all standing around...she isn't a person. I mean, she looks human, but then she doesn't."

"Let me see."

Gen passed the rifle to him. Niko looked through the scope and studied the woman in its crosshairs. Gen was right. She looked human in shape, but there was nothing human about her appearance. Her skin was a darker grey than the rest of the lunatics, lined with a network of deep, black veins and her narrowed eyes looked a darker red. She was remarkably tall and willowy. Her features were just as strange as the rest of her, too sharp and too slanted. She had a long, equine face and a black waterfall of hair that shined like oil. To add to the strangeness of her appearance, the woman was also highly cognitive, unlike the masses surrounding her. She looked around at them, smiling at them in a way that seemed like affection, showing off teeth that were enlongated and pointed, and black as obsidian.

"My _God_," Niko breathed. "I don't...I don't even know what to make of this." A part of him thought there was no way what he was seeing could be real, but there had been nothing fake about what he'd experienced since waking from his coma.

"She's important," Gen said. "Probably every loony has come to her. Maybe she's their leader or something."

"How?" he demanded. "How the hell can a bunch of sick people have a leader? Why the hell would they? They don't think; all they do is kill. This makes no fucking sense."

Gen heard something that sounded a lot like fear in his voice. Concerned, she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze. "I know."

He shrugged her hand off. "We should not have come here. We should not have followed them."

"We at least know something about them now."

Niko pulled back from the rifle, frowning at her. "What do we know, Gen? That..._something_ might or might not be leading them? That answers nothing. All it does is bring up more questions we won't find answers to. I was fine with not knowing a fucking thing before." He looked away, peered down the scope again at the bizarre humanoid standing among the masses. "We should not have followed."

He panned the rifle among the gathered and noticed that a good number of them standing close to the woman's tank were an exact match to her; they were as dark and veined and tall as she was, even had the same shiny, black hair. Then he noticed something else. Most of the people had a variety of natural hair colors and styles, but there were others whose hair was streaked with that same oily black, too many of them to be some dye job. Their skin was also a tinge darker than the others who didn't have those black streaks.

"Whatever this is, it's still changing them," Niko said.

"I think so, too. That woman looks like the finished product, but..." Gen shook her head in confusion. "This _can't_ be some kind of infection. Infections don't change people like this; they don't change hair and skin and eyes, and..._teeth_. Not like this. And they don't damage brains and then magically repair them again, like it seems with this woman. Or turn blood black, like we saw with that big guy yesterday."

The man looked at her. "If not some disease or virus, what else can it be?"

"I don't know..._I don't know_!" She looked like she did the first day Niko had met her at the hospital, when she saw Algonquin's devastation for the first time; near hysteria. "I'm starting to think you were right. Maybe we shouldn't have followed them." She put a trembling hand over her mouth. "What the hell is going on?"

"Gen-"

"Look!" Bernie cut his friend off. "They're doing something..."

Down on the street, the massive crowd was joining hands as if to form the biggest prayer circle in the world. Person linked to person, and even their female leader joined the chain. Yet they were all silent; there wasn't a sound to be heard. The people appeared to be in some kind of a trance.

"Jesus!" Gen exclaimed with dismay. "Their eyes...Look at their eyes!"

They were glowing, and not as any of them on the roof had seen them glow before. The eyes in the crowd were a fierce, brilliant red, and they pulsed like a heart.

Gen pulled herself up on her hands and knees, deciding she'd had enough. This was too weird, too impossible, too much. She didn't want to spend another second on that roof. She...

A sudden, strange sensation filled her head, like a colony of angry bees buzzing around inside her skull. The buzzing turned into thick pressure, the pressure into a pulling sensation. Unable to stand it, Gen keeled over, pressing the heels of her hands to her temples.

There was a voice, a woman's voice, but not her own. She spoke some incomprehensible language. Gen realized it was inside her head, and the sounds were like a spear through her brain. She looked around, her vision blurry. Whatever was happening, it was happening to the others, too. She shut her eyes, pressed her hands harder against her skull in a vain effort to dislodge the voice. She couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything but endure it.

At last, the voice faded and outside sound filtered in. Eve was crying, Bernie was moaning, Niko was saying something in what she assumed was his native tongue. Gen tried to sit up, but it was like coming out of a coma all over again; she felt weak, disoriented, muddled. There was a strong taste of blood in her mouth.

"_Shit_," Niko groaned. "Please, tell me I'm not the only one who just heard a fucking voice in their head."

Gen got herself up on her elbows. "It was in mine, too." She looked at his face, frowning at the blood on it. "Your nose is bleeding."

He touched fingers under his nose and stared at the red on them. Then his eyes rose to her. "So is yours."

"I thought I tasted it."

"Get out!" The scream came from the girl.

Startled, Gen and Niko looked over to see Bernie trying to calm Eve down. Her hands were clamped to her ears and she shook her head side to side wildly, her eyes squeezed shut. Her nose was bloody, like all the rest of them. "Get out, get out, _get ouuuut_!"

Gen scrambled over to her, taking hold of the girl's shoulders. "Eve, it's okay. It's over. Look at me."

But Eve was either beyond listening or could not actually hear her.

"Get out! Get out of my head!" she shrieked. She curled her hands into fists and banged them against her skull. "Leave me alone! Gen, help me! Help me get it out!" She started sobbing.

Gen grabbed her hands to keep her from hurting herself. She wanted to sob, too; she was scared out of her mind for the kid. Why was the girl still hearing that voice when they no longer could? Gen didn't know what to do for her. "I'm here, Eve. It's okay." She released one of Eve's hands and cupped her face. "I'm right here."

The girl's eyes rolled up and she went limp for an instant. Some seconds later, every muscle in her became rigid. Her body arched and twisted and started quaking.

"She's seizing!" Gen grabbed Eve away from Bernie and turned her over onto her side as she shook and foamed at the mouth.

Niko was there beside them, concerned. "What do we do? Has she done this before?"

Gen shook her head, tears on her face. "No. She has to ride it out; there's nothing we can do."

The Valium she had drugged him with, and which he had tossed in a toilet out of spite, might have helped Eve, but she didn't dare tell him that.

The man stared at the innocent girl, at the violence she was suffering. And he blew his stack. "The hell there isn't. There is something _I_ can do." Stiffly, Niko rose and turned away from them. He marched to the roof's ledge, stooping to pick up Bernie's Dragunov.

Gen understood what he meant to do. "Keep Eve on her side," she told Bernie, then jumped to her feet and hurried across the roof to Niko, who was already aiming the rifle out into the mass of lunatics.

Gen laid hands on the gun's barrel and yanked it toward her.

Niko tightened his grip and pulled back on it, glaring at her in his fury. "Fucking let go, Gen, or I swear to _God_...!"

"No. If you take that shot, then you might as well shoot all of us while you're at it. Every last one of those lunatics will come for us. You _know_ that!"

"And you know who is at fault for this. I don't care how fucking insane it sounds. That woman was in our heads." He thrust a finger at Eve, still keeping a firm grip on the rifle with his other hand. "_Look_ at her! That bitch did this to her and she will fucking pay for it!"

"She will," Gen agreed, keeping her voice soft and gentle, and hoping it might somehow ease his temper or make him see sense. "But not now. Give me the rifle before you get us all killed."

"Guys," Bernie interrupted. "I think she's okay now."

They looked over, both still refusing to give up the gun. Bernie had his arms around the girl, smoothing a hand through her blonde hair. Eve was still and quiet, her eyes closed. Gen looked back at Niko, expectantly. With a sigh, the man looked away and released the rifle. "Go check on the girl."

Gen hurried back to Bernie and Eve, kneeling on the roof and placing the Dragunov next to the man. She looked Eve over for any potential injuries, then checked her pulse.

"Is she going to be okay?" Bernie asked.

Gen frowned. "I don't know. Her pulse is fast."

"Let's get her out of here," Bernie insisted with a look of anxiety on his face. "Away from those _freaks_. Somewhere safe."

Gen nodded. "Yes, let's. I think we've seen enough here, anyway."

Niko strode over and knelt down next to the girl. "I got her," he said and scooped her up with care.

Gen and Bernie stood with him. "You sure you can get down the stairs with her?" the woman asked, her voice still soft.

"Yes. Let's get the fuck out of here."

* * *

The trio found a small furniture shop close to Purgatory where they could stay for the night.

Niko had wanted to take advantage of the lunatics' inactivity to get to their destination without a hassle, but Eve had seized again and Gen had insisted that they stop and continue on in the morning when Eve's health might be better. Niko didn't argue for once. He saw how shaken up the woman was with worry and he was worried himself.

They were _all_ shaken up and not just by the girl's condition. What they had witnessed in Star Junction had answered little and brought up more questions. The not knowing, what it was and what it meant, had its own horrible power, and it affected them in its own horrible way. Gen was terrified, jumpy, and quiet and Niko almost wished the woman would irritate him so he could fight with her and vent the rage eating up his insides. Then there was Bernie. He had nervously yapped non-stop during their journey until Niko threatened to rip his throat out. He hadn't made a peep since.

The furniture shop was intact, for the most part. Only the windows had been broken. Since there was no major damage to the neighborhood it resided in, it was likely looters who'd done the damage. It was confirmed by the state of the cash register, which had been beaten up and broken into; a pointless goal if there ever was one.

Niko placed the girl on one of the floor display beds while Gen and Bernie searched the store for anything they could use to keep the girl and themselves warm with. The stock room in the back had yielded plenty of blankets and pillows. They grabbed what they could carry and headed back into the main room.

Gen unzipped one of the plastic bags she'd been carrying and shook out a thick comforter. Niko grabbed an end of it and they draped it over Eve. Bernie gently lifted the girl's head and placed a pillow under it. They made her as comfortable as they could, now all they could do was wait. And hope.

"You both should get what rest you can," Niko said. "I will keep watch over the kid."

"We'll _all_ take turns keeping watch and getting rest," Gen insisted as she cleaned the blood from the girl's face with a pillow case she had wet from a bottle of water.

"Fine, do what you fucking want."

Gen made a face at him, but said nothing; she was in no mood to argue with him.

The three of them tried to eat, but not a one of them had an appetite to speak of. And they did not speak.

Sick of listening to her own thoughts, Gen decided to go out, ignoring the protest this evoked from Bernie. She wasn't going far and the loonies were likely still entranced in Star Junction, so there was no reason for him to get worked up. She remembered seeing a liquor store next to their furniture shop and she needed something to ease her frayed nerves.

The booze shop had been looted, not to her surprise. In a situation as this, no one could be blamed for wanting a drink or four.

Before the city had gone to shit, Gen had often had a few shots of whiskey to unwind after a hard day at the cop shop, and sometimes it was the only thing that could get her to sleep at night. She'd always been a restless person and the job made her even more restless; she constantly wondered if she had done enough to help the people she'd met that day, had she done enough for the victims' families. As much as she loved what she did, sometimes it was torturous.

The only things the looters hadn't taken was the cheap beer and wine, though it appeared someone had picked through even that. At least they had been generous enough to leave something behind.

Gen chose two eight-dollar bottles of cabernet sauvignon; one for herself and one for the boys in case they wanted something to ease their nerves, too. She grabbed a corkscrew from a bowl sitting on the checkout counter, then made her way back to the shop.

Nothing had changed there. Niko was still keeping an eye on Eve, and Bernie sat on the display mattress at their right, bundled up in a blanket. The former looked at her when she came into the shop, eyed the bottles in her hands and made a face.

_Here it comes_, she thought, _the lecture on the follies of getting drunk in our situation. He must think I'm an idiot._

But Gen didn't get a lecture. She got sarcasm.

"Are you planning a party?"

Gen would've preferred a lecture; she had a feeling it would've been less annoying. "Maybe. You're not invited."

"Good. Somehow I get the feeling a party with you can't be all that enjoyable."

"This, coming from the guy with the stick up his ass. Now I've heard everything," she retorted as she crossed the shop and grabbed a throw blanket from where she'd left the pile of bedding from the stock room.

Bernie caught the malign look on Niko's face and spoke up before his friend could say something to further provoke a fight. "You shouldn't push him, Gen. He pushes back."

"So do I. He pushed first with his smartass remark."

"Look, Gen," Niko said, sounding as irritated as he felt. "What you're planning to do ain't smart in our situation."

The woman turned to him, brows raised, mouth tight. "And what exactly do you think I'm planning to do?"

"What am I supposed to think when you're carrying around two bottles of wine? No one can blame you for wanting to get drunk after what happened, but you getting shit-faced puts us _all_ at risk."

The woman laughed. It was a harsh sound. "Thank you, but I'm aware of that. Cheap wine calms me, it doesn't get me shit-faced. I just thought you guys might want something, too, and considering I don't know where _you've_ been, I would rather not swap spit with you."

"You don't have to get fucking nasty about it," he shot back.

"No, that's your job, apparently."

"Fuck you."

"No, thanks. I'm STD-free and I'd like to stay that way."

His heart quickened, his blood ran hot. "Fucking bitch!"

"Asshole."

Bernie decided to add his own comment to the volatile mix; he was tired of listening to them argue. And what he was going to say had the potential for making things awkward, if Eve had been right earlier, and that would hopefully shut them both up. "Yeesh, all this sexual tension between you two."

Gen looked at him, a brow raised. "Are you kidding me?"

Niko snorted. "He's fucking delusional."

"Oh, _puh-lease_. Even the kid sees it," Bernie said, grinning like an idiot. "Why don't you just screw each other and get it over with? I can take the girl to the stock room to give you some privacy."

Gen and Niko looked downright appalled.

"Oh, _yuck._ I think that repulsive suggestion alone just gave me a venereal disease," Gen retorted.

Bernie laughed, then clapped a hand over his mouth when Niko shot him a betrayed look.

"Traitor," the man accused. "If I knew you would turn on me like this, I would have _joined _those boys back home in bullying you."

"Come on, Niko, lighten up. It was funny."

"It was not funny."

"I see your sense of humor perished along with your morality," Gen said. "Or did you ever have either one? I'm not sure anymore."

Niko released an infuriated growl, curling his hands into tight fists. "Keep pushing me, Gen," he said through his teeth. "See what happens."

Bernie decided he better try to stop Gen's ruthless pestering before something bad happened to her; his friend looked like he was going to lose it. "Okay, sweetie, stop. You can only poke a bear so much before he rips your head off."

Gen smiled, obviously pleased with herself. "Yeah, I think I saw steam coming out of his ears. My work here is done."

She took her knitted throw and wine and found a nice little mattress far away from the man she'd intentionally angered. Maybe he would learn not to treat her like an idiot the next time.

The wine was good, despite being cheap. She had drunk a quarter of the bottle when it began to warm and calm her. Gen curled up on the mattress with her throw blanket, and was soon asleep.

She had no idea how long she had slept, but she awoke from a nightmare of death, shivering and sick to her stomach. In the dream, the strange woman they had seen in Star Junction tore out Eve's heart and ate it. And Gen could do nothing about it. She had no weapons. She had been paralyzed and useless. Helpless.

She hated that feeling more than anything.

It was night now. Silvery moonlight spilled in through the shop windows. When Gen looked around, she caught Niko staring at her. He was still seated beside the girl; it appeared he hadn't moved all night. There was no anger on his face, only a drawn look that spoke of his weariness. She must've slept for _hours_ if truly was as calm as he looked.

"Bad dream?" Niko asked.

"Horrifying." Her voice was hardly a whisper and she looked away, feeling ashamed. It was irrational and she had no idea why the feeling was there. She'd had a nightmare. People have nightmares. There was nothing to be ashamed about.

Gen stood from the mattress, stretched a bit, then looked over at Bernie. The man was asleep under a mountain of blankets. "Isn't he supposed to be keeping watch now?"

"It doesn't matter."

Gen eyed Niko with a disagreeing look. "It matters. You need to get some rest; you look exhausted."

"Well, I'm not. So, don't trouble yourself with worrying over me. I'm capable of looking after myself."

Gen snorted. "I'm not worried about you. I'm worried you'll be too fatigued to be useful when we have to go back out there."

"I said I'm not tired."

She grit her teeth. "Must you always be a stubborn ass?"

The man smirked, and she saw a degree of sadism in it; the jerk was getting satisfaction out of making her angry. Maybe she deserved it for doing the same to him earlier.

"I think you _are_ worried about me. Maybe I'm growing on you."

_Yeah, like flesh-eating bacteria._ Gen frowned. "How is Eve?"

"No change," Niko replied, his sadistic smirk fading. "She hasn't woken up yet."

Gen came over and sat near the top of the mattress beside the child. She reached out and ran a hand through Eve's knotted hair, working some of the tangles out. "Any more seizures?"

"No."

"That's something at least," Gen said. She looked up, studied him for a moment, then she smiled and shook her head.

Niko made a face. He knew he was going to regret this, but... "_What_?"

"I was just thinking about how weird you are."

"You're one to talk."

"At least I make sense. Most of the time you're an annoying, cold, short-tempered _idiot_, then you go and do something completely contradictory, something nice. Like staying up all night, sacrificing rest you're going to need, to watch over a little girl."

"What does it matter?" he replied, growing bored with the conversation.

She grinned. "I'm just trying to figure you out, that's all."

Niko shook his head. "Why do you keep persisting with this pointless endeavor?"

Gen shrugged. "Maybe I don't think it's pointless. Maybe I think there's something under that cold, hard exterior worth getting to know."

"Look, Gen, you're better off not knowing anything about me," he said, honestly. "So take my advice: just think the worst of me and keep your distance. For both our sakes."

Her grin curdled. "Jesus Christ, Niko. Why are you so goddam closed off?"

Silence.

Gen shook her head, exasperated. "Fine," she sighed. "Be closed off then, but at least try to get some rest while you're at it."

Niko opened his mouth to protest, but Gen put up a hand. "If not for yourself, then do it for Eve. On the off chance you drop dead from exhaustion, she might get upset over it. Do you really want to do that to her?"

"If it will shut you up about it, fine. An hour and no longer."

"Fantastic." She stood from the bed and went to the spot where she'd left all the pillows and bedding. "Hey."

Niko turned only to be hit in the face with a pillow, then a blanket. "Gee, thanks."

He chose the mattress at the girl's left, and as he settled back, he became aware of how tired he really was. There were no dreams for him that night; he was too physically and mentally exhausted to dream.

* * *

To cabralfan27: Sorry, but Gen is going to be around to annoy Niko. :) However, I expect the focus to be staying on their little group for a long while.

To Sumogypsyfish: You're correct! It is The Truth. A billion points to you, for whatever those are worth. It's been a long time since San Andreas. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hasn't forgotten the hilarious stuff that crazy hippie uttered.

To alexisg200: I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far. Let's hope Niko and Gen don't kill each other _before_ they can find his family and get out of the city(if they do). ;)

As always, thank you all for the sharing of thoughts.


	7. Chapter 7: Drama At Bahama Mamas

**Chapter Seven: Drama At Bahama Mamas**

* * *

**G**en stood at the shop's window, watching the sky change from the dark, star-speckled velvet of night to the soft, purple-grey silk of dawn. The chilly November breeze exhaled through the broken window, tugging at her dark auburn hair. The world was quiet and still.

She had always enjoyed dawn, standing on her apartment balcony with a cup of spice tea, waiting for the sun and listening to the sounds of a city stirring to life. Those had always been peaceful moments. But she felt no peace now, even in the silence. There was only dread and uncertainty. And anger. Anger at the loss of their God-given right, the liberty to live life and enjoy living it; anger at the loss of normalcy; anger at the untold destruction and death around them. Sharp, cold anger.

"I thought I told you an hour and no longer?"

Gen turned from the window. Niko stood up from his chosen mattress, stretching out the kinks and stiffness that came with sleeping on an uncomfortable bed. She wished he had slept longer. She was still irritated from their conversation last night and wasn't looking forward to dealing with him.

Gen looked back outside. The sky was brightening a little more; there was a hint of gold now among the grey. "You're rested, aren't you? Stop complaining."

He frowned, but chose the higher road to avoid a spat. "Has the kid come around yet?"

She sighed. "No. She should've woken up by now, or at least twitched or something in her sleep, but she hasn't done anything."

"We have to move on, Gen. We can't stay here another night."

"I know that." She faced him again, this time with a stern expression. "We aren't leaving her here."

Niko looked downright offended. "I wasn't suggesting that we should."

"With you, one can never be sure."

"You think I'm that cold?"

Gen spread her hands with a helpless shrug. "Hey,_ you're_ the one who told me to think the worst of you."

Niko made a face. Sleep had made him forget about that. "Whatever. I have no intention of leaving her."

She snorted. "I'm surprised you're even sharing your intentions with me at all. It must be so _painful_ for you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Figure it out."

"Already?" a groggy voice joined them. It was Bernie. The man sat up a bit on his mattress, an elbow supporting him as he yanwed into a hand. "It is _way_ too early in the morning for this."

"He started it," Gen accused.

Niko was confused and it showed plainly on his face. "What the hell...? All I did was wake up."

"Typical man," Gen said, rolling her eyes. "So _stupid_ he doesn't know what he did."

Niko shot her the darkest, most unpleasant look he could muster. It was horribly impressive.

"Enough, Gen," Bernie warned with a grim tone. "That's the look he gives people before he kills them."

"It's not my fault he's such a..." She trailed off, realizing what Bernie had said. _People_, she thought. _He said people, not freaks_. _He always calls the lunatics freaks._ Her face became confused. "What people? What do mean, 'before he kills them'?"

Niko gave Bernie a look that screamed, _Don't you say another fucking word. _He did not need this, not now; the woman already made his life hell. This was certain to make it even worse.

Unfortunately, before he could even open his mouth to fix what Bernie had started, Bernie blanched and fumbled to fix it himself. And succeeded in making things considerably worse.

"I just meant...I...That was before!" He waved his hands around, excitedly. "He doesn't kill people anymore!"

Gen gaped. "_Anymore_!?"

"Ooh, _for fuck's sake_, Bernie!" Niko cried at him. He could not believe this. The cat hadn't been let out of the bag; that poor thing was _ripped_ out.

"I'm-I'm sorry!" fretted Bernie. "It just came out!"

Gen looked between them for a moment, then she burst into laughter. The men stared at her as if she'd gone off the deep end. "Okay, you guys actually had me going there for a second," she said. "Good one."

Bernie laughed, too. It was shrill. "Just pulling your leg!"

Gen, being a cop, knew how to read most people, but she didn't have to put in much effort with Bernie; he was as transparent as they come. The smile on her face was gone, as if slapped off, and it was replaced by an appalled expression as she realized, "Oh, my God...y_ou're not kidding."_

Silence descended as both men found the floor of sudden interest.

Gen had to sit down. Then she had to stand up and pace. Then she laughed again because the whole damn thing was unbelievable. Unbelievable, but there was not a peep of denial from Niko. "_God_...I don't even know what to think! I mean, what are you, a fucking serial killer? Is that what you both can't say?"

"He was a hired gun," Bernie said, trying to be helpful.

Niko shot him a blistering look. Friend or not, he looked ready to tear his head off.

Bernie shrugged, helplessly. "What? She already knows."

"Thanks to your big fucking mouth!"

Bernie cringed and looked guiltily at his feet. "I'm sorry," he squeaked.

Gen had to sit down again. She leaned on her knees, covering her face with her hands. "I can't believe this. All this time." She dropped her hands, scowling at Niko. "All this damn time! You were..._this_...and you could've...and I thought you were..." Gen laughed again, despite feeling like an idiot for ever believing what she had of him last night. "So, how many?"

The question threw him. "What?"

"How many people have you killed?"

"I am _not_ answering that, Gen."

"Why the hell not? No need being shy about it now."

"Because I didn't exactly keep track."

Gen scoffed. "Of course not."

"It ain't what you think," Niko said in defense. While it was true he had taken quite a few lives, he hadn't been the kind of indiscriminate, sadistic killer he knew Gen was thinking he was. It was stupid to want her to understand that, but he couldn't help it; she was condemning him before she knew the whole story. But maybe she couldn't help it, either. She may have been annoying, but she was a morally upstanding person; the world was black and white to her and he lived in the grey area, between right and wrong, good and evil. It was the worst place for any human being to be.

Gen gave him an icy look. "Oh, it's not? So, you weren't getting _paid_ to off people?"

The man's face hardened like stone. "I was, but it was a complicated situation; I didn't have a choice and I enjoyed _none_ of it."

"I'm sure. When you kill someone, you're making a choice to do it. Saying it isn't a choice is just denying responsibility for it."

"Then you're no different than me. How many people have you killed since all this shit started, Gen?"

"Fuck you_,_ you bag of shit! I took lives in _self-defense_!"

Niko loomed over the woman, dark and angry as a storm. "And I did what I did because I was _forced_; it was either kill or be killed or watch the people I care about die! I was forced into a position I _never_ wanted to be in, a position where the only way to survive was to become involved with people a hell of a lot worse than me, and I've had my fucking conscience ripped apart because of it. Not all of us has had an easy life, like you; not all of us were given choices in life, like you."

"Don't presume to know anything about me."

"And don't presume anything about me! If I truly was what you think I am, do you honestly think for a second that you would still be alive after you doped me up? I am not what you think, Gen."

"So you say."

"So I say," Niko seethed. "And you're still breathing."

"All right, I've had quite enough!" Bernie erupted.

Niko and Gen stared at him in surprise. Bernie rarely rose his voice in anger; Bernie rarely got angry.

The slight man faced Gen, his expression hard. "Now you listen to me, missy. I have known Niko for a long time. He has walked through _hell_ and he has been made to do terrible things by the worst pieces of scum on the planet and by unfortunate circumstances. He has made mistakes, but mistakes only make him human. He has _always_ been a good man and a good friend-"

"But-"

Bernie shot up a hand. "I'm not done talking!" he cut her off. "Despite all of it, he has had the courage and strength to turn his life around. He is not the person he once was."

"How do I know that?" Gen asked.

"Because I'm telling you, hon, that's why. Because I _know_ him. Besides, he saved your life at the hospital, and when you were nothing more than strangers. Would a bad person do that?"

Gen shook her head. She was so utterly confused. What Bernie said made sense, but... "I don't know! I don't know what to think."

"Give him the benefit of the doubt. People can change, Gen."

Before Gen could reply, there was a soft sound nearby - her name, spoken on the whispering lips of a child.

The trio looked toward the sound and found the girl shifting about on the mattress, whimpering. "Gen...?"

The woman went to her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Gen reached out and brushed away the hair on Eve's forehead. "I'm here, baby girl. How are you feeling?"

Eve rubbed at her eyes. "I had a bad dream. The strange woman we saw was in it. She had eggs. I think they were bad, because they were black and gross. And she made people eat them. They got sick, started throwing up and stuff. Then they started changing, started looking like her. It was weird."

"It was just a dream. It's over now," Gen assured her.

Eve stared at her, her blonde brows wrinkled. "The woman in my dream said it's just beginning."

* * *

The streets remained deserted; it seemed the lunatics were still hanging out in Star Junction.

The group hadn't spoken a word to each other since leaving the shop. After Bernie's graceless and unintentional disclosure of Niko's past, Gen had gone out of her way to avoid the man and kept Eve as far away from him as possible, still uncertain of what to believe. While it was true Niko had saved her life not once but twice, he had threatened to kill her before, too. She wondered if people like him really could change; she wondered if it was safe to trust him.

The strip club they had risked their lives to reach sat on a street corner. It was a two-story building with a faded billboard and a dead neon sign along its side that read _Bahama Mamas_. There was a handful of people on the roof, men and women, and all armed with rifles.

As the quartet approached, they noticed the front doors had been barricaded with two vans that had either been driven or pushed into place. All the windows on the bottom floor had been boarded up as well.

"Hey, down there!" The call came from the roof.

They group looked up to see a man with a rifle kneeling on the raised ledge, staring down at them.

"Hey, up there!" Gen called back, raising a hand. "We come in peace!"

"You guys just passing through?" the man asked.

"Actually, we thought we might stay for a bit. You got room for four more?"

"There's a fire escape around back in an alley. Climb on up!"

The man was waiting for them when they made it up to the roof, smiling. The other men and women offered the newcomers brief, curious or distrustful looks before returning to their guard duty.

"Hey," the smiling man greeted. Gen thought he was a good-looking guy with his well-defined features, brown hair, blue eyes, and dimply smile. "You guys been on the streets long?"

"A couple of days," Gen answered. "Trying to get here."

"Well, you're the first we've had in a while, so you've got to be some tough people."

"There haven't been others coming in off the streets?" she asked.

The man's smile faded. "No, not really. Most of the people staying with us now are ones our original group came across during supply runs, or ones we rescued from the Reds."

"Reds?"

The man shrugged. "That's what we're calling the crazies out there, for the color of their eyes."

"We like to refer to them as lunatics, or loonies." Gen said.

"Or _freaks_," Bernie added.

The man chuckled. "All good names for them. Anyway, our group here started out with only five. We grew to thirty, but we've lost people, to suicide and Red attacks during our supply runs. We're around twenty now."

"That ain't much of an army," Niko observed.

The man gave him a confused look. "Pardon?"

"We assumed you were building one to purge the lunatics," Gen said. "I came across a guy who'd spoken to someone who'd been here. He seemed to think you were raising an army, said you had a lot of people and an arsenal at your disposal."

"The latter's true," he admitted. "But we're not building an army. We're building a defense. It would be stupid to take on the Reds when there's more of them than us, especially when they're damn near invincible. Hell, the actual army couldn't fend them off. We wouldn't last two seconds."

"You guys are just planning to stay here?" Gen asked.

The man shrugged. "What else are we supposed to do? This building is built like a fortress; strong, stone walls. We've barricaded every door and window at street level, inside and out. The only access inside is to climb up to the roof by the fire escape. We've had it out with several small wandering groups of Reds here, and we've destroyed them every time. It helps to have a building between you and them, and the barricades give us extra time to pop heads; that's the only way they die."

Gen nodded. "We've noticed."

"You've destroyed them every time because you have been lucky the groups were small," Niko said. "You won't be able to hold them off if they come with a larger force."

"Well, from what we've seen so far, they only attack when they see us," the man said. "They don't _plan_ attacks on us."

"That doesn't mean they don't gather in larger numbers. There's a mob around Middle Park that's at least fifty strong. We saw two hordes of at least a hundred yesterday, moving to Star Junction where there were thousands. Tens of thousands; a fucking army of them."

The man wasn't surprised by this. His face was grim as he nodded. "Yeah, they've gathered like this before, the day after the military retreated. The Reds were acting stranger than usual, traveling with intent rather than moving around aimlessly, so a few of us went to investigate. That's when we saw some weird woman in Star Junction. We think she's the one gathering them together, calling to them somehow. And both times this gathering has happened, we've all felt strange and heard a voice in our heads that we think was her. She's like...an advanced version of them or something."

"We felt it and heard it, too," said Gen. "We were there at the gathering yesterday, hiding up on a roof. Whatever it was that happened there, it gave our girl here a seizure and gave the rest of us nose bleeds."

"The same thing happened to us, and our kids had seizures, too. One of the survivors here thinks the Reds and their woman are all communicating at these gatherings, with each other or maybe with the ones on the other islands. Could be both. For some reason, they don't or can't talk, so maybe this is the only way they can speak to each other."

Gen rose a brow. "Telepathically, you mean?"

The man shrugged. "Yeah. Hey, it may sound crazy, but it happened. We all heard the same voice in our heads, so we all can't be nuts. And that voice...it spoke some kind of weird langauge. That survivor who thinks they're communicating? He's a professor of linguistics and he says there's no language like that anywhere on civilized Earth, unless it's from some primitive tribe unknown to the rest of society, which is highly unlikely. Then we got one lady who thinks they're all aliens and a priest who says they're possessed by demons. So, you know, we got a variety of speculation going."

"Speculation ain't answers," Niko said. And he wanted some goddam answers for this madness.

The man frowned at him. "No, but I guess you could always go up to that weird woman and ask her yourself if you want. I'm sure she'll provide you with the truth."

Niko gave the man a peevish look; he was not in the mood for this. "Don't get fucking smart with me."

Gen sighed. "Do you just have a bad habit of making an enemy of everyone you meet?"

"I didn't ask for him to be a smartass."

"And no one asked for you to be an asshole."

"Go to hell."

"You first."

The stranger stared between them, brows raised.

Bernie gave him an apologetic smile. "Don't mind them. They're always like this."

The stranger shrugged. "Well, I guess I should take you guys to see Cole."

"Cole?" Gen asked.

"Coleman Ignacio, the man who runs the show here."

The woman's face became a mask of shock. "Coleman Ignacio..." It had been years since she'd heard that name, and she had never wanted to hear it again. "_God_. Is this guy a former cop, by any chance?"

"Yeah." The man's brows rose in surprise. "You know him?"

She smiled thinly. "I'll say. He was my partner a few years back."

"Really? He'll probably be glad to see you, then."

Gen snorted. "With our history? Highly doubtful."

"Why am I not surprised you have bad histoy with someone?" Niko remarked.

Gen scowled at him. "Shut your damn face, Niko!"

Niko made no counter, but he looked damn well pleased with himself for ruffling her feathers.

"Cole is a good man," the stranger said. "We would've died out there if he hadn't taken us in."

"He's not as good a man as you think," cautioned Gen.

He shrugged. "Whatever his past was, it doesn't matter here. So, whatever your problem is with him, it would be best for you to set it aside while you're with us. We like to keep things peaceful; it's chaotic enough out there."

"I can try, I guess." But she wasn't making any promises.

The man led them all through the roof door and down a flight of stairs. They came to a hallway, dimly lit by a few of the oil lamps hung on the walls. Midway, their guide stopped before a door where soft moaning and heavy breathing could be heard.

The man knocked. "Cole-"

"Oh, _for Christ's Sake_!" came an irritated voice. That was Cole all right; Gen knew that vexed voice anywhere. "I'm in the middle of something! _Deeply_ in the middle of something!"

"Sorry, man, but we just got some new ones in a minute ago; they're here with me now. I think you might be interested...you know one of them," the stranger said.

A long pause, then, "All right, give me a minute."

There were some rustling noises, a feminine giggle, a lot of muffled cursing, and then the door opened. A woman with mussed, dark hair stepped out, straightening her shirt. She avoided eye contact as she made her way down the hall.

"Send them in," Cole called.

The stranger stepped away from the door, gesturing Gen and the others into the room.

Coleman Ignacio was a tall, handsome man with a head full of curly black hair. He was dark-eyed, clean-shaven, lean, and fit. The black shirt he wore was unbuttoned half-way down his chest, sloppy and untucked from his blue jeans. He leaned back against a desk with his arms crossed.

The moment he saw Gen, his face showed an expression of unpleasant surprise, then a dark smile twisted his mouth.

"Geneviève," he said, giving her name an unnecessary, dramatic flourish. "The French _Bitch_."

She offered him a thin, cold smile "I've missed you, too."

"If you're here, God must really hate me."

"Everybody hates you, so it's no surprise God would, too."

"The woman who just left would disagree; I'm sure you could hear how much she wasn't hating me a moment ago."

Bernie gasped, putting his hands over Eve's ears. Too little, too late.

Gen rolled her eyes. "I'm sure she was probably drugged, or insane."

"Which were you, Genny, drugged or insane? I remember how much you used to 'hate' me. You used to 'hate' me a lot in the back of our cruiser, and on every solid surface of our apartments."

She bristled. "Ancient fucking history."

"You know, I'm surprised you're alive. Before the city went to shit, I'd heard you'd been shot in the head by a child molester."

"I don't die easy, apparently."

A light frown creased Cole's face and there was a strange glimmer in his dark eyes. Was that disappointment Gen saw? "No, I suppose not. So, I guess you'll be wanting to stay here?"

"I _did _until I found out you were here. But I got them to think about, too." She waved a hand at the others. "So, yeah, we'll be staying. For now."

He laughed. "This should be interesting. And just so you know, I will be putting you and your friends here to good use."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means everybody who stays here does something to help out; it's what people do in a community. And it's a small price to pay for safety."

"Is that the only price they're all paying?" Gen asked, suspiciously. The man was not known for being selfless. Considering the extent he was going to help these people, he had to be getting something phenomenal out of it.

Cole rose a brow. "What exactly are you getting at?"

"Come on, we both know you're not doing all this for nothing. So, what's the grand prize?"

Cole feigned a wounded look. "I'm hurt, Genny. People can change, you know."

"They can," she agreed. "But you and your like are the exception. People like you _never_ change."

Cole shrugged. "You'll see how wrong you are soon enough." He smiled. "You may even come to like the new me."

"No, I won't. I haven't forgotten what you did, Cole. I have _never_ forgotten and I have no intention of forgiving, either. You should've been convicted for what you did; you should be rotting in a fucking prison cell!"

He smiled. "Innocent until proven guilty, Genny; there was no evidence."

"Only because you paid someone to 'misplace' all of it."

Cole laughed. "Regardless, it doesn't matter what _you_ think. The people here like me, they chose me to lead them. So, you might want to start acting civil towards me or you and your friends may find yourselves up against more than just the Reds outside."

"That better not be a threat," Niko responded with a tone of harsh warning.

Cole looked at him, unmoved. "Threat? No. Consider it helpful advice. Well, I suppose it would be wrong of me to send all of you away just because of some bad history with Genny, so meet Connor here..." He gestured to the stranger they'd met on the roof, who was standing in the open doorway. "He's the second in command, so he's going to show you where to sleep and explain the rules. He'll also assign you to whatever task he thinks you're fit for. Oh, and Genny?" He grinned, but there was something awful in it. "It's good to see you alive and well."

* * *

Connor showed them to a room down the hall that had been converted into sleeping quarters for the people. It was set up with so many cots there was hardly any space to manuever between them. There was a single window towards the back that let some light in, and several oil lamps and battery-operated lanterns had been hung on the walls to provide light at night.

"Would you guys prefer to bunk together?" the man asked.

"Whatever's convenient," Gen replied.

Eve clung to Gen's arm, staring up at the man, shyly. "I want to stay with Gen."

"Easily done, kid," Connor replied, then pointed to a corner of the room. "We got four cots free over there. They're all yours. But before you all get settled in, let's get the rules out of the way."

"Lay it on us," Gen said, smiling.

"There's only three we want followed," Connor went on. "The first is no stealing. We don't tolerate it. The things we have are the things that have kept us alive, and people have risked life and limb to get them. The second rule is to keep civil. If you have a problem with someone, take it up with Cole and he'll settle it. We can't afford in-fighting."

Gen's smile turned thin. "What if the person we have a problem with _is_ Cole?"

Connor shrugged. "You'll just have to get over it. He's our leader and that's not going to change. The last rule, do your job. Whatever I assign you to do, do it and don't complain about it. We need people to chip in so things get done when we need them done. We like things to run like clockwork. So, that's it; anything else is just common sense and hopefully you guys have plenty of that."

"Sounds simple and fair to me," Bernie spoke.

"I agree," Gen added.

Eyes fell on Niko. He shrugged. "I guess I can force myself."

"Great," Connor said. "You guys got any questions or anything?"

Gen looked around at the others. Receiving only blank faces, she glanced back at Connor and shrugged. "Nope. We're good."

"All right. We'll get to the assignments tomorrow when you're all rested up. You need anything, you let me know."

With that, the man took his leave, closing the door behind him.

Gen chose the cot closest to the wall, dropping her backpack on the floor beside it. Pulling the strap of her M-16 from her shoulder, she sat the weapon aside and stretched back on her cot while the others situated themselves on their own.

"So, Gen," Bernie spoke up. "What is the story with you and Cole? He made it sound like you two were an item at one point."

Gen waved a dismissive hand in the air. "It was a long time ago and it's not worth talking about."

"What happened, Gen?" Niko asked. Gen glanced at him. The man was smiling and it wasn't the smile she liked; it was smug and Gen knew something smart-alecky was about to leave his stupid mouth. "You annoy him until he couldn't stand you anymore, too?"

She narrowed her eyes. _One of these days, Niko, I'm going rearrange your face and you're never going to see it coming._ She smiled, sweetly. "No, I've reserved my powers of annoyance just for someone like you. Actually, I think I'm going to make annoying you my mission in life."

"You're getting a good start at it," Niko retorted.

Gen chortled. "I know."

"Is this going to be a problem for us, this hostility between you and him?" he asked.

She shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not going to antagonize him, if that's what you mean. He made it clear what's going to happen if I cross him."

"I still want to know what happened," Bernie prompted.

"Not important, Bern."

"It is," he said. "Or you wouldn't still be mad at him after so many years. Come on, you can tell us. We are all friends."

The woman sighed. "He was just a bad cop, a bad _person_."

"What made him bad?"

"The things he did."

"What did he do?"

Gen groaned. "You're not going to give up, are you?"

Bernie offered his buffoonish grin. "Nope."

She sat up, facing him. "Fine, I'll tell you, then I don't want to hear about it anymore. Got it?"

Eager, Bernie nodded.

"The short version is he was a dirty cop, involved with some drug pushers, heroin dealers. He would warn them when the cops were sniffing around, and helped them distribute the skag, all for a cut of the profits. I knew a few people in the vice unit and he knew that, too. And he knew how I felt...about him. So, he took advantage of it. And I unknowingly fed him information that eventually got my friends in vice killed. That's when I knew."

"And you ratted him out," Niko said.

She shot him a glare. "Yeah, I ratted him out, and I'd do it again."

The man frowned. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded, Gen. Even I can admit you did the right thing."

She scoffed, angrily. "I know I did the right thing and I particularly don't need some murdering bastard's opinion of what's right and wrong." And as soon as those words left her mouth, she knew it was unfair; she was lashing out at him when it should've been Bernie for bringing this up. Unhealed wounds were painful enough; poking around in them only made them hurt worse.

Gen shook her head, guiltily. "I-"

"Murdering bastard I may be," Niko cut her off with a chilly look. "But at least I've never killed my friends."

She stared at him, stricken, but she said not a word. Gen rose sharply from her spot, and Niko expected to get hit; he'd crossed the line, he saw that clearly. But he got nothing but her pained look and her silence, and then she was gone from the room, slamming the door behind her. He kind of wished she'd struck him; somehow, she'd made silence and a look seem a lot worse in comparison.

Eve jumped off her cot, glaring hellfire at the man. "Why are you so horrible!?" she shouted, but she didn't wait for an answer. Maybe she knew she wasn't going to get one.

The girl tore off for the door and it slammed for the second time.

The two males were left alone, and there was an awkward silence.

Bernie broke it at last with, "You sure have a way with the females, Niko."

Niko shot him a withering look. "Shut the hell up."

"You should not have said that to her, no matter what she said to you."

"I know. What can I say? I'm an asshole."

* * *

Gen and Eve returned later, after dark, and the woman's mood was gloomier than it had been when she'd left earlier.

Some of the oil lamps in the room had been lit to ward off the black of night, and a few of the children and older survivors were getting ready for bed. Over in the corner, Bernie was lying back on his cot, head propped up on a pillow and one of his romance novels open in front his face. Niko was stretched out on his own cot with his hands folded behind his head, dozing by the look of him.

Gen ushered Eve over and put the kid to bed, draping one of the blankets they had been provided with over her, as well as a throw blanket the woman had taken from the furniture shop. After saying their goodnights, Gen got up from the cot and went to stand over Niko, nothing pleasant on her face.

She shoved his leg with her knee. "You awake?"

The man opened his eyes, drowsily. "I am now."

"I'm going to speak with Cole. Thought you might want to be there for it."

"So I can listen to you two argue? No, thanks. I get more than enough of that from you and me."

"Actually, I set up this meeting with him _for_ you, to see if he knows a way to get you into Broker. Just thought you might have your own questions for him."

That surprised and confused him. Who was this woman to still go out of her way to help him after he had spoken so cruel to her earlier? Surprised and confused he was, but now he also felt like a jerk, more than he already did. "...Oh."

"Are you coming or what?" Her tone was full of impatience.

"Yes."

The man stood from his cot, and they headed out.

"Try not to kill each other!" Bernie called to them, grinning over the top of his book.

Gen waved a dismissive hand over her head.

She and the man traversed the hallway, lit with the orange glow of the lamps hanging on the walls. There was an awkward, tense silence along for the short journey, a silence that was somehow louder than noise.

Niko was gracious enough to break it, and to try to make amends while he was at it. "Uh...Gen, about earlier-"

"Don't."

"I'm just trying to-"

"No."

"Would you just-"

"_No!_"

Niko sighed._ That went real well._

He grabbed her arm to stop her. Gen jerked away. She knew what he was trying to do, and she didn't want him to do it.

"Calm down, and just hear me out," Niko said.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand?"

"I'm trying to apologize, you stupid woman!" he yelled at her, frustrated.

"I know!" she yelled back. "I don't want you to fucking apologize!"

Well, now he was just confused. "I dont understand."

Gen stared at her feet. She sighed; it was long and drawn out and miserable. And this was the first time he'd seen her so vulnerable. "It hurt, what you said. But it wasn't the words themselves. It was the truth behind them. It hurt to face it and I was just mad because you showed it to me. I've always put the blame on Cole, because it's easier to blame someone else than face the truth. I told him things I shouldn't have, and that's what killed my friends."

"No, that is stupid. It ain't your-"

"_I killed them_." Her voice broke.

_The guilt is too deep, _Niko realized. There was nothing he could say that would convince her she wasn't to blame. "I'm sorry, Gen."

Gen turned away and started up the hall again. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

Niko joined her at the door to Cole's office. Gen banged a fist on it. "Oh, Cole! You have visitors!" she called.

A moment later and the door opened. Cole stood there, looking between the two in the hall and he didn't appear happy to see them. He stood to the side to let them in. "Let's get this over with."

Gen stepped past him. "You got a pressing engagement? Another woman you have to drug and rape?"

Cole laughed as he closed the door behind Niko. "Ooh, is that jealousy? I would've thought you'd moved on by now, Genny. You must've had it bad for me."

"What I had was a bad case of what-the-hell-was-I-thinking."

Cole grinned. "I thought that was the disease you had when you were engaged to that guy in the Noose unit...what was his name?" He waved a dismissive hand. "Well, fortunately for you, that mistake didn't last long, did it? The dumbshit got himself killed. How'd it happen again, Genny?"

She didn't answer. Her breathing turned heavy and her hands clenched into fists.

"No, wait, I remember," Cole went on, mercilessly. "It was during that bank heist in The Exchange back in '08, wasn't it? Your boyfriend thought it would be a good idea to charge after those three perps. He thought he would be a hero, but he ended up shot dead in some shitty Chinatown alleyway. Some fucking hero, eh?" He laughed.

In a fit of fury, Gen lunged at him. "You son of a bitch! I'll tear your fucking face off!"

Niko grabbed and restrained her as a cold, sick feeling coiled in the pit of his stomach.

The bank heist. It was the one he'd taken part in, he knew; the same year, the same place, three perps, and an escape through Chinatown's alleyways. There had been a lot of Noose officers charging after them that day. He had killed some, so had the others.

_It could be me_, Niko realized with horror. _God help me, I might have killed the man she was to marry_.

How could an enormous city be so cruelly small? Why must he be connected to this woman, of all people and in such a horrible way? The universe hated him, and he was really starting to hate the universe.

Gen could never know. He was going to have to talk to Bernie; he had told him about the heist once, and Bernie was prone to blabbing things he wasn't supposed to.

The woman growled, wiggling in his grip like an eel, and she directed her next enraged shouts at him. "Let go of me! I'm going to tear him apart!"

"No, you're not," he replied, his voice tight. "You need to calm down."

"Oh, I'll calm down after I rip his fucking spine out!"

He wheeled the woman around to him as Cole looked on in amusement. Niko tried to shake some sense into the hostile woman, and he found he couldn't look her in the eyes; he could hardly look at her at all. "Stop this. You're just giving him what he wants. Remember what we're here for and get it together."

Gen knew he was right. She hated it when he made sense. "Fine," she growled through her teeth. "Now get your fucking hands off me."

He released her and Gen turned back to Cole. Niko saw her hands clench into fists and was almost certain she was going to have another go at the man. Surprisingly enough, she kept herself in line.

"As much as it kills me inside to admit this," she said. "We need your help."

Another smirk paid a visit to Cole's mouth. "Why the hell should I help you?"

"You're not technically helping me. You're helping him." She gave a sharp nod at Niko. "He needs to get into Broker."

Cole laughed as he headed to the chair behind his desk, taking a seat. "For what reason?"

"His family is there."

Cole looked at Niko. "If they're even still alive, what are you going to do if you find them?"

Niko had no idea where he was going with these questions, but for the sake of the people he cared about, he humored the man. "Get them as far away from this shithole as possible."

"I thought so." Cole stretched a hand out across his desk, indicating the chairs in front of it. "Sit down. There's something you both should see."

Once they were seated, Cole lifted the screen on the laptop sitting before him on the desk. He looked at them as he waited for the computer to turn on. "The battery life on this thing is almost gone, so you're probably the last people who will see this. I've shown the others here, as well as anyone just passing through."

"What is it?" Gen asked, suspicious.

"The god-awful truth."

The laptop chimed to life and Cole clicked a few things, then turned the laptop so its screen faced them. There was a video player with a video waiting to be played.

"When the army arrived in the city, I knew shit was serious, so I turned to the internet to see just how serious it was. I was able to download these videos from a website just before the power went out," Cole told them as he reached around the laptop and fingered a key.

The video was grainy, likely recorded on a cheap cellphone, and it was shot from the inside of a building. It showed the Red Square in Moscow, where dozens and dozens of Russian soldiers were getting mobbed by a great horde of lunatics. The soldiers fired on the lunatics' front line, but with each lunatic that fell, another took its place. They moved like a tidal wave upon the armed men, rushing through them, mowing them down, ripping them apart. Their screams drowned out the sound of gunfire. A tank rolled through the scene, and the horde swarmed it, climbed it. They pulled a soldier from the hatch, and fought over him until he was pulled in half. A handful of lunatics broke from the main crowd, running toward the recorder. There was screen movement as the person backed away, shouting in Russian. The killers burst through the glass windows of the building, growling and bellowing in mindless rage. The recorder screamed. The video tumbled, then went still and black. The man's screams went on and on, at last ending in a watery, strangled moan. The sounds of shouting and shrieking and gunfire could still be heard.

Cole stopped the video, then played the others, one by one. And Gen and Niko watched in silent horror as army after army was torn to pieces and cities around the world fell to the lunatics.

When it was all done and over with, Cole shut off the laptop and sat back in his chair, watching them.

For several long moments, it was dead silent.

"The rumors were true," Gen said at last, her voice hardly above a whisper. "God help us."

Beside her, Niko fought a lump in his throat. The evidence that this madness was everywhere made him think of his mother, his sweet, caring, saint of a mother. He tried to convince himself that she was okay, she must be. She lived in a rural area, and it seemed the lunatics were mostly in highly populated cities. She would be safe, she _had_ to be safe. There were neighbors and friends who would look out for her. Only neighbors and friends because her useless, idiot of a son was here; here, when he should have been there; here, because of the stupid mistakes and decisions he had made. He had never felt so utterly helpless in all his life.

"In light of what you've just seen, I think you should probably rethink your plan," Cole said. "There's no where to go. The entire world is a shithole."

Niko heard humor in the man's voice. _Humor_. And when he looked up at him, he saw it on his face. Cole was staring at him, smiling. Smiling when the world had descended into chaos; smiling when there was no hope; smiling when their lives would never be the same again; smiling like he didn't give a damn about any of it.

In a sudden, rage-induced burst of movement, Niko lunged across the desk and grabbed the man by the throat, squeezing the life from him. Cole's eyes popped wide. He wasn't fucking smiling now.

Gen was on him in a heartbeat, yanking at his arm. "Are you insane!? Stop!"

Blind in rage, Niko released a hand from the man's neck and swung it back at her. It connected. He didn't know where and he didn't care. Her grip left his arm and he reinforced his stranglehold on Cole's neck. The man struggled, gagging for air and clawing at his wrists. Tighter and tighter, Niko squeezed that neck until the muscles in his arms strained.

Then something slammed into the back of his head. He felt a moment of pain, and then the world went black.

* * *

A/N: To the guest reviewer asking about the McRearys: If anyone makes a cameo, it'll probably be *ugh* Gerald(not a Gerald fan). This story is set four years after IV, which is very close to V's timeline and I've tried to keep in line with that. Which is why there was mention of Packie being in San Andreas. SPOILER: Derrick is dead, according to Packie in V(I'm guessing suicide or drugs), so he's going to be dead here, too, along with Francis, who got what was coming to him. Lastly, thank you for the amazing compliment on the writing! :)

And I haven't forgotten you Alexisg200 and Cabralfan27(hopefully Gen is still growing on you, and hopefully not so much of the flesh-eating bacteria kind of growing ;) Thanks, guys!


	8. Chapter 8: Eye For An Eye

**Chapter Eight: Eye For An Eye**

* * *

**T**he first thing he heard when consciousness brought him back to the world was Bernie's condemning voice, "You are a real piece of work, Niko Bellic."

And Niko recalled why he was a real piece of work; the inexorable rage, his hands around Cole's throat, squeezing and squeezing until the man's eyes bulged and he clawed at him for air...

This was bad. There would be consequences; his actions may have put them all at risk, more than they already were, and it may have cost him a way into Broker. Perhaps he should've taken Roman's advice long ago and sought anger management. His temper got him into more than enough trouble.

Niko sat up on his cot, touching the throbbing spot at the back of his head. He felt a small knot there, but when his hand came away, there was no blood on it. He noticed it was still dark out, so he hadn't been unconscious for long. Most of the children and older people were still asleep, but there were others that hadn't been present earlier, awake and sitting on their cots, giving him the evil eye.

_They know_, he realized. _They know what I did. _

How the news could've spread so fast, he had no idea.

He looked at Bernie, who sat on the edge of his own cot, legs crossed. There was an expression on his face that bordered between irritation and disappointment.

"Don't give me that look," Niko said.

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

"What would you like me to say, Bernie? That I fucked up? Well, I fucked up. Are you satisfied now?"

"No, I am _not_ satisfied! I would like to know if I made a mistake defending you to Gen earlier today. You could have killed Cole. I thought you were passed all this, Niko? I thought you didn't want to be this person anymore?"

"I don't!" Niko shouted at him, lurching to his feet. "You weren't there! I spent a whole fifteen minutes in that office with that asshole, and those fifteen minutes turned into a massive fucking shitstorm! Would you like to know what I found out?"

Bernie opened his mouth to respond, and he should've known better. Once Niko got to ranting, there was no stopping him until it was all out of his system.

"I found out that what's happening here, is happening _everywhere, _Bernie! The entire world has gone to shit! Cities are destroyed and there is not a single army on the face of this worthless fucking planet than can stop those lunatics! My mother is out there in this shit, and I can do nothing to protect her! And while I'm learning all of this, that _fuck_ is smiling like it's all a big joke!"

Bernie gaped at him, his eyes wide, his face livid with shock. "Slow down, back up! _The entire world_?"

"The entire world. We are fucked, Bernie."

"Cole said this?"

"He showed us proof. He had videos from the internet, of attacks on other cities."

"Oh, my God," Bernie whimpered. "What are we going to do, Niko? Where are we going to go!?"

"I have no fucking idea," he admitted, sitting back down on his cot.

They sat in silence for some moments. And Niko recalled the other problem he needed to deal with.

"Where is Gen?"

"Trying to talk Cole into letting us stay until morning," Bernie answered. "He's infuriated, to no one's surprise."

"That prick is lucky he's still breathing," Niko replied with a dark tone. "There was something else I found out, Bernie."

Bernie sighed. "Let me guess. It's something bad."

"It will be a big problem if she finds out."

Bernie gave him a confused look, but then his eyes looked past his friend and he said, "Whatever it is, it will have to wait."

Niko followed his gaze, and there she was, coming in through the door. He noticed there were armed men standing outside in the hall. They had probably been ordered to keep him from leaving the room and causing more chaos.

Niko had expected to face the wrath of Hurricane Gen, considering he had violenced her earlier, but the woman looked strangely composed. Of course, hurricanes had a moment of stillness; perhaps this was the eye of her storm.

"How did it go?" Bernie asked as she approached.

"I talked him into letting us stay," Gen replied and made a sour face. "It wasn't fun. I think I lost every ounce of dignity I had, having to wheedle that asshole into it. I feel dirty and I need a damn shower."

"This man has a price," Niko said. "You've made that clear before. So, what's his price for letting us stay?"

Gen ignored him.

There was a moment of tense silence, and that tensity came off her, in waves.

Bernie, merciful soul that he was, didn't let it draw out. "So, he's just letting us stay until morning, then?"

"We can stay as long as we need to," she answered. "But I don't think we should. If it wasn't night, I'd have us leave now. Cole isn't a forgiving man. The fact that he's letting us stay after what happened...I don't like it."

"You think he will retaliate?" Niko asked, then shook his head. "He would have done it already. He had the chance earlier, after you knocked me out." He knew it was her, and she could hardly be blamed for it, considering Cole would be dead if she hadn't intervened, and saving him had probably saved them from being mobbed and killed by everyone else. "The people here are on his side. All he would've had to do was yell for help, and that would've been the end of us."

Silence.

Niko frowned at the woman. Maybe he deserved the cold shoulder, but that fact didn't keep it from irritating him.

Bernie looked between them, raising a brow. "Well..._do_ you think he's going to do something?" he asked Gen.

She shrugged. "Probably not. It would make him look bad in front of some of his more forgiving people, and I don't think that's a risk he's going to take. They'll question his leadership, it'll cause a rift, and as Connor said, they can't afford in-fighting. But that doesn't mean someone else won't try to do something. I've seen the looks. Some of the people are really pissed off, and as far as they're concerned, we _all_ tried to kill Cole. We should just leave in the morning...if we make it through the night."

"I guess one of us should stay awake, then," Bernie suggested.

"I'll do it," Niko volunteered. "I suppose it's the least I can do, considering we're in this mess because of me."

At last, Gen turned to him and Niko's eyes were drawn to the angry patch of purply red along her jaw, near the corner of her mouth. He'd gotten her good.

The woman was still calm, however. He thought there had been anger in her silence toward him before, but there was no trace of it on her face or in her eyes. Maybe she realized it hadn't been intentional, just a blind reaction in the heat of the moment...

Then she socked him, her fist striking him in the same place he'd struck her.

Niko reeled in surprise and pain, and was further stunned that such force lay behind such a small woman. He understood now where she'd been keeping her anger, in her fist.

Gen leaned over him, her face close to his, and all the fires of hell burned in her eyes. "Eye for an eye."

Niko laughed and he wasn't certain what he was laughing at. It was an absurd reaction to being struck, but one he couldn't seem to help. Maybe it was for the fact that he had expected her to get him back earlier, yet she was still able to take him by surprise.

"_Ooh_! You think this is funny!?" Gen steamed. "Well, laugh it up while you can, asshole. In a second, you're going to be crying!"

She cocked her fist again, and she aimed it no where near his face. That fist was aimed for a certain tender part of his anatomy, and she let it fly with all her strength behind it.

"Not there!" Niko shouted in horror, and caught her by the arm just in time. "_Shit_. Calm the hell down!"

Gen wrenched from his grasp. "This isn't funny!"

"I know it's not. I wasn't laughing at that," he said. "Look, I didn't mean to hit you before; I didn't know what I was doing. I'm sorry, okay?"

"You should be. You need to curb your goddam temper!"

_Look who's talking_, Niko thought, but had the good sense to keep it to himself lest she threaten his reproductive organs again.

Bernie cleared his throat noisily. "So, did you guys at least find out how to get into Broker?"

"No," Gen said, a shade calmer now. "We didn't get around to it. Before idiot here went apeshit, Cole showed us something...something terrible."

Bernie nodded, grimly. "The end of world. Niko told me."

Gen shook her head as she sat down next to Bernie. "He's exaggerating."

Niko looked at her, rubbing at the throb in his jaw. "Were you watching something else?"

"He showed us some cities overrun with lunatics. That doesn't mean _all_ of them are."

"We don't know that for certain and the chances of that are slim, anyway."

"We don't know anything for certain. But I'm choosing to believe there's a ray of hope, that there's some place out there that hasn't been touched by these lunatics."

Bernie asked, "What cities are overrun?"

"Moscow, London, Athens, Sao Paulo, Lima, Tokyo...the last one we saw was Las Venturas."

"Big cities," Bernie noted. He looked at Niko. "That is a good thing for our friends back home, for your mother. The rural areas will keep them safe. Or maybe Gen is right and this hasn't happened in every country."

"Maybe, maybe not." He sighed. "I don't know. I don't know anything, other than the fact that if I was there and not here, I could protect her."

"Don't go there, Niko," Gen said, her voice more harsh than she meant it to be. She hated how he could make her hate his guts one moment and then make her feel so utterly sorry for him the next. He was putting her on an emotional rollercoaster, and it was starting to make her feel nauseous. "You'll tear yourself up, thinking like that."

"How am I supposed to think, then?" he snapped.

"How the hell were you supposed to know this was going to happen? There's no point beating yourself up over something that's out of your hands."

"She's right," Bernie said.

Niko made a face. "Of course you would think so. You always take her side."

"I only take her side when she makes sense, hon," Bernie replied. "Even if you were back home, Roman would still be here, and you would still be in the same situation as you are now, worrying and wishing you were somewhere else."

"Hey, once we find your family here, maybe we can take a trip across the Pond and go find your mom," Gen suggested.

Niko laughed; the idea was that ludicrous. "We can't even get into Broker. How the hell are we going to get out of the damn country?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, but it might be possible."

"You're foolishly optimistic."

"Nothing is impossible until it proves it is. And we have no proof yet."

Niko shook his head, miserably. "Don't try to give me hope where there is none."

"There is always hope," Bernie said, always the optimist. "For now, we should focus on our immediate situation. Since we still haven't found a way into Broker and we know Cole isn't going to be helpful anymore, what is our next move?"

"Actually, I _could_ try talking to Cole again," Gen offered. "We might be able to make some kind of deal with him. If he can gain something out of it, he might give us information."

Niko gave her a surprised look. "You would deal with him again after what I did to you?"

"Hey, I hit you back and it felt great." She grinned. "I'm never going to forget that look on your face, either. I know you didn't mean to do it. We're square, as far as I'm concerned."

The man smiled, and it was that smile she liked. "You're a strange woman, Gen."

Her brow raised. "Um...not sure what to say to that."

"Say thank you. It was meant in a good way."

"Oh." She dropped her eyes, staring awkwardly at her shoes. "Thanks."

Bernie grinned his buffoonish grin. "Look at this, you two getting along and after all this nastiness. It _must_ be the end of the world!"

"Shut up, Bernie," they replied in unison.

* * *

He watched the light morning rain patter the window, the beads of water slipping down the glass like tears. Niko thought it was fitting weather; gloomy as their lives and their situation. It was quiet as well. It was only him and Bernie, and Eve, who was still asleep. Everyone else had gone down to the club's main floor. Niko was glad to be rid of them. Most had done nothing but glare at him. If looks could kill, he would've died several, horrible deaths.

The moment Gen had awoken, she had gone to meet with Cole again.

"No time like the present," she'd said. "Besides, he was always a morning person. I'm going to need him in as good a mood as I can get."

Niko had wanted to go with her, as he thought his mere presence there would likely intimidate the guy, but the woman had insisted he stay put, certain he would only make Cole uncompromising and hostile. He didn't argue for once. Gen knew the man better than he did. Hopefully she would be able to work him again.

And while he was alone with Bernie, he took the opportunity to tell him what he hadn't been able to tell him last night.

"Bernie, you remember a long time ago when I told you about that bank job I did with Packie?"

"I remember," Bernie answered. "Why?"

"Yesterday when we spoke with Cole, I found out that Gen was engaged to a Noose officer. He was there that day, and he was killed." Niko turned from the window and looked at Bernie, his face grim as death. "And I may have killed him."

Bernie's mouth dropped open. "Jesus, Niko. Are you sure?"

"Everything fits; the same year, the same location, three guys involved, and this man died in an alleyway in Chinatown, where we tried to escape the cops. It could've been Packie or Derrick, or it could've been me. Regardless, she can never know about this."

"Oh, no," Bernie fretted. "Then why did you have to tell me? You know I am no good at keeping secrets."

"You already knew about the job, and knowing your big mouth, you would've said something about it to her sooner or later. This has to stay between us. If she finds out, she will try to avenge him. And it won't matter to her that there is a chance I didn't kill him; I was involved and I'm the only one she can confront. It cannot come to that. We need her as much as she needs us; it's the way of things now."

Bernie shook his head. "She is not like you, Niko."

"No? She is short-tempered and holds grudges; she is capable of revenge. She got it on me for unintentionally hitting her, and knowing what she does about me didn't stop her. Promise me you will say nothing."

Bernie sighed. "I don't like keeping things from friends, but...I think you're right about this. Even if she wouldn't get revenge, it would still make things a lot worse than they already are. I will not say anything, you have my promise."

He turned back to the window, staring out into the gloom. The rain was falling a little heavier now, in thin sheets. "Thank you."

"What a horrible turn of events."

"I don't know why I'm even surprised. The past always comes back to..." Niko trailed off, catching movement down on the street.

A small group of lunatics were approaching the intersection outside the building, coming from the Star Junction area. Niko counted seven of them. In the rainy gloom, they looked more nightmarish than usual, like skulking, shadowy, red-eyed demons.

"They are on the move again."

Bernie stood from his cot and approached the window, looking out. His face fell. "Oh, no. Why couldn't they just stay where they were!?"

There was a sudden, loud crack that made Niko flinch and Bernie nearly jump out of his skin. Down on the street, one of the lunatics fell to his death.

Woken by the sound, Eve stirred on her cot, calling for Gen. When she sat up and saw the woman wasn't around, she looked toward the men. "What was that noise?"

It sounded again, making the girl gasp. Then again and again; a cacophony of pops that echoed and rolled like thunder. Lunatic after lunatic fell, heads jerking in sprays of blood that looked black in the dismal atmosphere. Maybe it was black.

It grew quiet again, save for the chatter of rain on glass.

Eve pulled her blankets up to her chin, shivering. Her eyes were wide and scared. "It was them again, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Niko answered. "But it's okay now. They're gone."

"I want Gen," the girl said. "Where is she? _I want Gen_."

The man sighed and looked at his friend. "Do something for the kid before she starts throwing a fit."

Bernie frowned. "Okay, you don't have to be mean."

"I'm just saying. She's upset, and she'll respond to you better than me."

Bernie sat down on the girl's cot and put a secure and comforting arm around her shoulders, speaking soothing words. Eve calmed a bit, though she still persisted her need for the woman's presence.

The girl didn't have to wait long.

Gen stepped through the door some fifteen minutes later. Her face was blank, so Niko had no idea if the news was good or bad. Eve tossed aside her blankets and scrambled over to the woman, hugging her hard about the waist.

"Everything okay?" Gen asked her.

The girl looked up at her. "There were crazy people outside."

Gen rubbed a hand against her back. "I heard the gunshots. The people watching on the roof took care of them. You're safe from the lunatics in here." She led the girl to her cot and sat down, Eve curling up beside her, laying her head on the woman's lap. Gen stroked her hair.

"So?" Niko prompted, leaning back against the window and folding his arms at his chest.

"We made a deal," Gen said. "He knows a way that could get us into Broker, but he wants us to hold up our part of the deal first."

"Which is?"

"He wants us to go on a supply run."

"That's it?" Niko shook his head. "That sounds too easy to me."

Gen's smile was tight. "It's not. It's a supply run, but it's also a theft. There's a small group of survivors not far from here, holed up in a storage facility near the Golden Pier. They have guns and Cole wants them."

"He wants us to take the _only_ thing these people can defend themselves with?"

Gen nodded. "He tells me they're bad people, too, that they kill off anyone who gets too close to their 'territory'. He claimed they killed some supply runners not too long ago."

"And you believe him, this man who got your friends killed?"

She shrugged. "He might be lying about these people, but he was adamant enough about wanting those guns. And I believe he wants us to do it because we're expendable; why risk his own people when he can just risk us? If we get killed, it's no loss to him. He'll probably throw a celebration."

"We're to do this alone, then?"

"We could take Bernie, but I'd rather he stay here and watch Eve. So, unless you have an objection to that, yeah, it's just going to be you and me." She smiled, knowing he would likely have something smart to say about that.

"Fun," Niko replied with a caustic tone. "You're okay with this? Stealing these people's only defense?"

"No, but Cole isn't giving us much of a choice, either."

"You don't have to get involved, Gen. I can handle it on my own."

"You don't know that; you don't even know what you're up against yet. Besides, I gave you my word that I would help you. I never break my word."

"Are you sure Cole is telling the truth about any of this?" Bernie asked. "This seems fishy to me."

"I'm not sure of anything, but like I said, what choice do we have? He has the information we need."

"Are you sure about _that_?" Bernie pressed. "I don't like this, Gen."

"If we don't do this, we have nothing. If we do, we might get something. I think we should take the risk." She looked at Niko. "What do you think?"

He didn't trust Cole anymore than she did, but the woman had a point. And no matter how small the chance was that Cole was making an honest deal with them, it was a risk he had to take for his family. "I think we should go steal some guns."

* * *

Lightning bolted across the depressing sky and thunder grumbled in its wake as Niko and Gen moved along Galveston Avenue. They kept close to still-standing buildings in case they came across a mob of lunatics too big for them to take on and needed to seek safety. The cold rain lashed them, and the even colder wind made every drop of water feel like a stab from an icy needle. They had only made it a block from the strip club and they were already soaked from head to toe.

"I hope this lets up soon. I'm freezing my ass off," Gen complained, her breath fogging in the air. In only a white tank top, a pair of jeans, and running shoes, she was not dressed for the elements. "Maybe we should've waited the storm out."

"Too late now. You can keep your mind off the weather by trying to figure out how the hell we're going to steal these guns."

"This place is kept locked up, but Cole said there's a way to get in from the roof."

"How does he know?"

"He had someone scout the place before. That's how he found out they had a cache of weapons."

"How many people are we looking at?"

"Eight. If we're lucky, there might be less than that; maybe some of them were killed by lunatics." She frowned. "What a horrible thing to say."

"Anyone guarding the outside?"

"He said no, they all stay inside and watch from the windows. If they see anyone, they come out and slaughter them...if he was telling the truth."

"Wonderful. If he was, how are we supposed to approach the place?"

Gen looked around, studying the buildings. She felt exposed all of a sudden, like hidden eyes were watching them, but she saw no movement or questionable shadows, just dark windows, lonely alleyways, and the deserted street. "There's a blind spot on one side of the building; no windows."

"What are they armed with?"

She shrugged. "Hand guns, assault rifles. Their arsenal isn't as big as Cole's, but it's impressive enough for him to want it."

"Anything else we should worry about?" Niko asked.

"No...unless he intentionally left something out."

Niko frowned. "That is exactly what I'm worried about. I'm getting a very bad feeling about this."

"I got a bad feeling, too, like we're being watched, but I haven't seen any movement."

Lightning flashed in the sky again with a steady rumble of thunder as they neared an intersection. The moment they stepped past the mouth of an alleyway, something swung out from around the corner and struck Niko in the face, sending him sprawling on the sidewalk.

"Niko!"

Before Gen could move, two armed men crept from the alley. One of them had a shotgun aimed at her and the other, armed with an assault rifle, put a foot on Niko's arm, pinning it down. Niko was dazed from the blow, his free hand pressed above his right brow. Gen could see blood seeping through his fingers. The armed man bent over him and confiscated his M-16, tossing it out of reach, and as he made a grab for the Glock tucked in Niko's pants, Niko tried to catch his wrist to break it. In his muddled state, it was a poor attempt. The man easily eluded him and struck him across the face with the butt of his assault rifle. Niko's vision went white, and his ears rang like church bells. The guy took his gun, tossed it, then searched him for any more weapons.

"Now you, bitch," the guy with the shotgun said to Gen. "Drop the gun and anything else you got on you."

With no choice in the matter, Gen slung her assault rifle from her shoulder and tossed it. She reached for the Glock tucked in the waist of her pants and threw it on the ground, too. Her Ka-Bar knife followed.

"That it?"

She nodded.

The man smiled; it was dark and ominous, promising unpleasant things for her. "You know, I don't believe you. I think I'm gonna have to search you to make sure. Turn around. Put your hands on the roof of that car."

Gen turned to the sedan parked at the curb and placed her hands on the roof. The man stepped up behind her and put his shotgun on the car's trunk. It was within her reach. She just needed the right moment, when he wasn't so close.

"Spread those legs," he commanded. "I want to be thorough."

When Gen didn't obey, the man kicked her legs apart. Then his hands were on her, feeling around her hips, groping her breasts and ass, sliding along the insides of her thighs and across her crotch. Gen froze, grit her teeth, and kept her eyes glued on his shotgun. She shut out the rest of the world and focused on it and the man's hands, waiting for the opening to grab it.

She never heard Niko when he threatened to tear the guy's head off if he didn't get his fucking hands off her, or the laughter that followed from the two men.

_Lower_, she kept thinking, as if her mere thoughts could control the man's hands. _Search lower, asshole._

It seemed like a thousand years had come and gone by the time she felt the guy's hands on her legs, moving downward. This was it. Gen made a quick grab for the shotgun. Her finger tips touched the grip, then sudden weight crushed her against the car. The man had a firm grip on her wrist, pinning it down. She let out a thwarted growl and he laughed in her ear.

"Nice try." He yanked her away from the sedan. "On your knees."

"Fuck you!"

The man grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back. She felt his nose and lips pressed against the side of her face, close to her ear. "Patience, you little slut. You're going to get fucked good and hard by us both before we kill you, don't you worry."

He pressed his lips hard against her cheek in a revolting and insulting kiss, then he shoved her to her knees. Numb and cold inside, Gen couldn't feel the hard ground under her or the cold rain pelting her. She was going to be raped, then she and Niko were going to die. And she knew this was Cole's doing, though the men before her were not anyone she remembered seeing from the strip club.

She caught Niko trying to reach his Glock, the gun that was closest. She tried to tell him to stop, but she couldn't find her voice. The man with the assault rifle struck him again. The guy got off on it, smiling in pleasure.

_Sick fucking bastards._

"Now then," Shotgun said, casually. "I'm sure you're wondering who we are and why we're doing this."

He waited for her response, but Gen only stared at him, anger on her face.

"Call it...'unfinished business'," he said.

Anger gave way to confusion.

Shotgun smiled at her expression. "Cole thought you would be confused and he wanted you to understand. Everything. He's the reason you were shot."

"What?" Gen could hardly hear her own voice.

"That pedophile who put you in the hospital? Cole set the whole thing up, hired him to take you out. It was a long time in the making; he just needed the right moment and the right person, and this kiddie rapist agreed to it for some cash and Cole's promise that he would find him a nice little boy to play with."

Gen's stomach turned. How she was able to keep the vomit down, she had no idea.

"You cost Cole his career, everything; 'his life', he says," Shotgun went on. "So, he felt it was only fair he take your life. Unfortunately, you somehow survived a bullet to the head. He was going to finish the job, then all this shit happened. By a twist of fate, you came walking into our strip club and he saw another chance to end you. So, here we are."

Her hands clenched into fists, cold rage surging through her blood. She shook with it. She couldn't see straight, couldn't think past the desire to rip these men apart, to rip Cole's black, repulsive heart out.

Tension built in her throat, filled it up until it burst out in the form of shouts. "I'll kill him! _I'll fucking kill him for this_!"

"No, you won't. What you're going to do is sit there and watch us kill your friend. Then you're going to die...after we have some fun with you first."

"Leave him out of this! He has nothing to do with it!"

"Oh, but he does. He tried to kill Cole. It's only fair Cole try to do the same."

Niko scoffed. "So he sends his fucking dogs. Too scared to do it himself?"

Assault Rifle laughed. "We'll see who's scared in a second." He aimed his namesake between Niko's eyes.

"Wait! You don't have to do this," Gen said, desperately trying to compromise. "Just tell him you killed us. He'll never know you didn't."

"Oh, how I wish we could," Shotgun mocked. "Unfortunately for you, Cole wants proof you're dead, asked us to bring your body back."

"Mine?" Gen replied. "Just mine?"

He shrugged.

Gen knew it was pointless; their fate was sealed. But she kept trying. It was all she could do. "Then that's proof that Cole doesn't care if he lives or dies; he only wants me. Just let him go. He has a family out there, for God's sake! _Let him go_."

Her plea fell on deaf ears.

Assault Rifle snorted. "Nah, I don't think we will. I think I'll enjoy watching his brains paint the sidewalk." His finger tightened on the trigger.

Gen tried to lunge at him, but the stock of a shotgun slammed into her stomach. Her breath came out in one painful rush, and she keeled over on her hands.

Niko's insides coiled tight with fear, but he never took his eyes off the man pointing the assault rifle at him, facing the threat of death with a look as cold and hard as steel. He would not die with that fear on his face; he would not give them the satisfaction of seeing it. "Make sure I'm dead, or you will wish you had."

Assault Rifle grinned. "There's a foot between my gun and your ugly face. You think I'm gonna fucking miss?"

There was a loud, thundering pop and Gen cried out in horror.

* * *

A/N: I'm going to try to keep this story updated every Wednesday. Also, this space down here will only be reserved for important notes and my replies to only guest reviewers from now on. If you're a member on the site, you'll get a reply through PM. I feel all reviews deserve a response, but I also want to keep the story's word count as true as possible.

To NBC: I still haven't decided if I will use Luis or not. As I mentioned to another reviewer, I don't expect him to have any major role if he shows up. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!


	9. Chapter 9: Unexpected Visitor

**Chapter Nine: Unexpected Visitor**

* * *

**R**ainwater chased rivulets of blood across the sidewalk. Gen watched one red stream fork around her hand, as the sound of that gunshot still echoed inside her. Her eyes followed that stream of blood to its origin, and she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

He lay prone on the sidewalk, blood pouring from where the bullet had torn off the top of his head. It pooled thick and dark around him. She could see the pinkish grey mush of his brains, imbedded with skull fragments. The sight should have made her feel sick to her stomach, but the only thing she felt was relief and confusion.

Only moments ago, Gen had been certain that gunshot heralded the end of Niko's life, but he was sitting across from her on the sidewalk, staring at the corpse that should've been his with a bloody hand pressed against his even bloodier head. The right side of his face was covered in liquid crimson from the gash on his forehead and the cuts on his cheek. The rest of his face was moon-pale from shock and the fear from standing too close to death's threshold.

She looked over at the guy with the shotgun. The man stared around wildly for the phantom shooter.

_He's distracted. Move, Gen. Move now._

Gen moved, she moved like lightning, but to her own eyes, the world seemed in slow motion. She bumrushed the man to the ground. They fell in a flail of limbs, his shotgun flying from his grasp and skidding across the sidewalk. Gen had him pinned under her, but she had no weapon but her hands. She reached for the man's throat. He threw his weight to one side. They rolled. She threw hers, and they rolled again, struggling with each other.

His shock worn off, Niko reached his Glock and aimed it, but they were moving around too much and the blows he'd taken to the head left his mind spinning. He couldn't take the shot; he was afraid of shooting her.

The man pinned Gen under him again, straddling her chest, his knees trapping her arms to her sides. He seized her throat and squeezed her windpipe, a hateful sneer on his face. Gen choked as she floundered under him, fighting for her life. Her violent struggle consumed what little oxygen she had in her lungs. The thick, burning pressure in her chest was unbearable. Weakness began to sink into all her limbs and a haze gathered in her vision.

There was a loud bang, very close, and the man shouted in pain. He fell away from her, clutching his side, blood running through his fingers.

Gen drew in a great gulp of oxygen, and with it came strength and sight and rage. She shot upright, eyes darting around. She found her Ka-Bar knife nearby. Gen scrambled, grabbed it, unsheathed it. She fell upon the groaning man and stabbed him. Both her hands gripped the knife, driving it down with all the strength she had, over and over and over. She couldn't stop; it was somehow beyond her control. Her mind split the man below her into two people; he was himself, but he was also Cole, the man she had once loved, the man who'd used and betrayed her, who'd hired a pedophile to kill her.

"_Motherfucker_!" she cried out, stabbing and stabbing.

Hands caught her arms, stilling her assault.

"Stop. He's dead."

Niko's voice cut through her mindless rage, bringing clarity. The world was forced back on her, like a punch in the gut.

Gen pulled from his grasp and threw the knife with something between a scream and growl that came from every dark and horrible place inside her. Through tunnel vision, she saw the bloodied man under her, his clothes and flesh rent from her knife. She'd gotten him in the face several times and had taken an eye out. Then she saw herself, the blood on her hands, on her arms, on her clothes, everywhere. She could feel it on her face, warm on cold skin.

Her gut churned, her stomach swallowed itself. Gen scrambled to her feet, lurched into the alley, and threw up. And it was as if all her strength was expelled with the contents of her stomach. Her knees buckled and she fell to them, trembling, trying to pull herself together.

Niko knelt in front of her, a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Are you okay?"

Gen shook her head, wildly, her voice caught too deep in her throat for words. Thinking he could have died because of her, Cole betraying them and learning he was the reason she had been shot, and the savagery she inflicted on that man...it was an overload.

They sat there for a time in silence, his hand still on her shoulder, trying to soothe.

It seemed to work, as Gen was soon calm enough to look at him and find her voice, "Where did that first shot come from?"

"No idea," Niko said. "But it seems we have a guardian angel."

Her brow creased. "I thought you were as good as dead."

"So did I. When I heard that shot, I almost shit myself."

Gen laughed, but she sobered quickly and put up an apologetic hand. "Sorry. I shouldn't laugh at that."

"Go ahead, I don't mind. Laughing is good after this shit."

"Even if it's at your expense?"

His face softened, though the effect was ruined by all the blood on it. "You pleaded for my life, and you risked your own when you tried to stop that fucker from shooting me. I think the least I can do is let you laugh at my expense."

"It's my fault," she said. "My fault we almost got killed. I'm sorry."

"If you are to blame, then I am, too. He sent those men to kill us both."

"You were just a bonus. His goal was me. And...I saw it, Niko; I saw it on his face when Connor took us to see him the first time. When we were talking about me being shot by that pedophile, and when I said I didn't die easily, Cole looked disappointed. It was there, it was right under my nose." She laughed, but it was a sad laugh. "I saw it...but I didn't _see_ it; I didn't know what it was. God, I'm an idiot!"

"Enough, Gen," Niko said, annoyed by the wallowing. "It doesn't matter what you saw or what you didn't see. He still would've found a way to get his revenge, and he would've made sure we never saw it coming. This ain't your fault."

Gen shook her head. "When did you start being so understanding?"

"I see it for what it is. You should try it sometime."

Gen was about to reply when someone called Niko's name. Then her own name came from the familiar voice of a little girl. It was Bernie and Eve.

"What the hell are they doing out here?" Gen wondered.

Niko rose to his feet and tried to fight off a wave of dizziness as he walked a bit unsteadily to the mouth of the alley. He saw Bernie and the kid coming from up the street and waved them over.

"I don't want her to see me like this," Gen said. "Covered in blood."

Niko nodded his understanding, then moved up the street toward their friends.

"Oh, my God," Bernie gasped at the sight of Niko. "Look what they did to that handsome face!"

"You're hurt bad!" Eve added with a worried frown.

"It's fine. It's not as bad as it looks."

"Where is Gen?" Bernie asked, concerned by the woman's absence.

"Busy. She's okay." Niko gave his friend a long, steady look. "So, you're the one."

Bernie's hand found his hip and he puffed his chest out, proudly. "It was a good shot, yes?"

Niko pulled him into a firm hug. "Thank you, my friend." He held him back by the shoulders to look at him, smiling a little. "I don't know what made you follow us, but we would be dead if you hadn't."

"It just didn't feel right," Bernie said. "I know when something is wrong."

"I felt it, too. Almost too late."

"So, Cole sent those men?"

"Yes."

"He set this all up to have you both killed. He was never going to help us."

"No. He's also the reason Gen was in that hospital in the first place. He hired a man to kill her, revenge for costing him his career."

Bernie frowned. "That awful bastard! We should go teach him a lesson!"

"No, Bernie. We are not going back there," Niko said. "It's a lesson not worth our lives."

"I suppose you're right. The guards on the roof were probably ordered to shoot us on sight."

"We should..." Another wave of vertigo made Niko sway. Bernie steadied him.

"It _is_ as bad as it looks," he said, worried. "I think you have a concussion. You should sit down."

"No, I'm okay. We should get off the street. I will get Gen. Both of you stay here, and out of sight."

Niko wandered back down the street toward the alley, shaking his head as if it would clear the dizziness, but the sharp movement only succeeded in causing more pain. With all the blows he had taken to the head recently, he was surprised his brain wasn't permanently damaged.

He found the woman kneeling before a roof drainage pipe with her back to him. She was shirtless. Only a black lace bra covered her shame. She used her tank top to scrub off all the blood on her.

The sight gave him a long pause, then he found the sense to turn his back, more for not wanting to get caught staring than for the sake of her privacy.

"It was Bernie."

Gen started at his voice, her head snapping around in his direction. "Jesus! Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry."

Gen stood up and wrung out her soaked, blood-stained shirt, then she pulled it on. "You can turn around now. I'm decent, so you're not going to go blind," she teased.

Niko faced her. "You weren't blinding me."

Her brows rose. "Weren't? So, you're implying you were looking before?"

_Oh, shit._

"No," was his hasty answer. "I just meant that I wouldn't go blind if I did."

"How do you know? I could be hideous under these clothes."

Niko shrugged as he looked around the alley, avoiding eye contact. "Maybe you are. I wouldn't know."

Gen smirked and let him off the hook. "You mentioned something about Bernie?"

"Uh...yes. He was our guardian angel."

She laughed a little. "That man just earned himself a big kiss."

"I'm sure he will be thrilled. We should go. They're waiting for us."

Gen nodded.

Before they stepped out of the alley, Niko shrugged off his jacket and pulled it over her shoulders. Gen gave him a surprised, inquiring look.

"It will hide the blood stains on your shirt," he said.

"Well, aren't you the gentleman," Gen said as she pushed her arms inside the jacket sleeves, then zipped it up to her neck. The jacket was several sizes too big for her, the hem of it almost reaching to her knees and the sleeves way too long. She looked comical, but his head hurt too much for him to laugh.

"Surprised?" he replied to her comment.

"Very. Um, about what happened with that guy, what I did to him, can we keep-"

"The truth will stay between us," he said. "If they ask, I will tell them I did it."

Gen gave him a grateful smile. "You know, sometimes you're a really good guy...for a former hitman."

"Thanks. I guess."

They headed up the street. Bernie and Eve came out of a building when they saw their friends approach. The girl ran at them, grinning from ear to ear, her arms thrown out for Gen. The woman scooped her up into a hug.

"Hi, baby girl," Gen greeted her.

"Please stop getting into trouble," Eve said, squeezing her neck. "You worry me too much."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Gen sat her on her feet as Bernie joined them and asked, "Well, now what? We're not any closer to getting into Broker, all of our supplies are at the club and we can't exactly go back for them, and Niko is injured. We are in a bad place."

"We can discuss it later," Niko said. "Not on the street."

Gen nodded in agreement. "But before we do anything..." She turned to Bernie, and true to her word, she grabbed his face and gave him a big kiss, right on the mouth.

Niko stared in surprise; he'd thought the woman had been joking.

When Gen let him go, Bernie's eyes were wide. "My goodness."

She smiled. "Thanks for saving our asses."

* * *

The apartment building was dark and silent, almost spooky, as the group moved through a corridor, looking for a place to stay. Bernie led them all for a change. The other three walked together, the girl between the adults.

Bernie tried the first door he came to and found it unlocked. He pushed it open cautiously and called out for any occupants. Receiving only silence, they entered, Bernie shutting the door behind them.

The living room was plainly furnished and well-kept. Gen drew some curtains open to let more light in as Niko plopped into a chair and groaned over the colossal storm raging between his ears.

They had made it indoors just in time. The storm outside was picking up strength. Rain came in torrents, flushing down the window, and the wind wailed like a ghost. The sky was split time and again by streaks and networks of lightning and thunder boomed loud enough to shake the window.

Gen and Bernie set about searching the apartment for a first aid kit or anything useful to tend to their friend's injuries. Eve kept Niko company, standing beside him and staring at the hideous gash on his forehead.

She wrinkled her nose, but reached a curious finger toward the wound.

Niko brushed her hand away. "Don't poke it."

She gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry. There's a lot of blood. Does it hurt bad?"

He would be lying if he said it didn't. "No, not too bad."

Eve put her hands on her hips, pulling a peevish face. "I'm not a baby, you know."

"I didn't think you were."

"But you treat me like one. I know it really does hurt when you say it doesn't. You're just trying to make me not worry about you."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Because you're lying, and lying is wrong."

"Even white lies, the ones we tell to not hurt someone's feelings...or make them worry?"

"All lies are wrong. You should always tell the truth, even if it does hurt someone's feelings or make them worry, because it's better than making people believe something that isn't true. And it might hurt their feelings a lot worse if they find out you lied to them."

"Are you hurt that I lied to you?"

"No. I already knew you were going to lie."

"How?"

She shrugged. "Grown-ups always lie to kids. Like when Mr. Gold died and my daddy said he went to Heaven."

"Mr. Gold?"

"My goldfish. He didn't go to Heaven when he died. He got flushed down the toilet. I saw daddy do it." She looked and sounded irritated by the whole thing.

Niko laughed, and wished he hadn't. It hurt his head to laugh.

Eve made a pouty face. "It's not funny. I loved Mr. Gold; I wanted him to go to Heaven."

"How do you know he didn't?" he asked, massaging his temples. "Maybe flushing him down the toilet sent him there."

"That's stupid," she said with the bluntness of a child. "Heaven isn't in a toilet. It's in the sky."

"Maybe goldfish Heaven is in a toilet," Niko suggested. He couldn't believe he was having such a ridiculous conversation, but he found he couldn't help himself. This kid was something else. She made him smile.

Eve sighed and rolled her eyes. "It is not. There's only one Heaven and it's only for people. Animals and fish aren't allowed. I don't think that's fair. Why would God make them, but not let them into Heaven when they die?"

"I don't know."

"Did you have a goldfish when you were a kid?"

"No. I've never had a pet."

"Why not?" Eve asked.

"My family was poor; we couldn't afford pets."

She frowned. "Oh. That's sad. Well, maybe when we find a safe place to live, you could get one."

_There is no safe place, little one_, Niko thought, ruefully, but he did not have the heart to tell her that.

"Goldfish are good pets," she went on. "You can even name it Mr. Gold, if you want."

He smiled. "Or Eve."

Eve grinned happily. "You'd name your goldfish after me? Maybe you're not so mean."

"I have my moments of being nice."

"You should have more. And you should be nicer to Gen, too." Eve looked around to make sure they were still alone, then she said in a hushed voice, "She likes you."

"I thought you said it was wrong to lie?"

"I'm not lying. She _told_ me."

"No, she didn't."

"Did too."

Niko shook his head, slowly. "You shouldn't lie to grown-ups if you don't want them to lie to you."

She frowned. "It's the truth."

"I don't believe you."

Eve stomped her foot and tossed her hands in the air in exasperation. "Uuugh! Now you're just being a buttface!"

Niko cringed, her shouting like a hot spear through his tortured head. "Not so loud. And don't call me names. You should respect your elders."

She folded her arms, looking quite irritated. "Not when my elders are being stupid and call me a liar."

"I didn't call you a liar."

"You did. You think I'm lying. That's the same thing as calling me a liar!"

"What is all this yelling about?" Bernie asked as he and Gen returned from their search. "Are you exposing the poor girl to your charm again, Niko?"

Niko scowled. "Shut the hell up."

Bernie grinned as he handed some bandages, packets of moist towelettes, a wash cloth and a bottle of alcohol to Gen. The woman took a seat beside Niko on the arm of the chair and handed off the items to Eve to hold for her so she could work freely.

Her hands were soft on him, gentle to minimize the pain as she scrubbed the blood from his face with a towelette. The rain had taken care of some of it, though the wound still oozed. She wet a washcloth with some alcohol, and the moment she touched it to the gash, Niko jerked his face away, grimacing at the horrid sting. She cupped his chin to hold him still. Her thumb stroked his face, as if in a gesture of comfort. He wondered if it had been intentional, or if she realized she had even done it at all.

Once the wound was cleaned, Gen was able to get a closer look at it. She hissed through her teeth. "It's deep and wide. It needs to be sutured. Unfortunately, I don't know the first thing about applying stitches."

"We don't have what we need to do them, anyway."

"I can do it," Bernie offered, stepping over to them. "I've done it before. All we need is a needle and some thread." He bent over Niko, examining the injury. "And it looks like it will not need many stitches."

Gen stood from the arm of the chair. "I'll go see if I can find what we need."

"Thin fishing line would work better than thread, if you can find it," Bernie called after her.

The search didn't take long. In the bedroom, Gen found a sewing kit inside a nightstand drawer, but a further search of the bedroom yielded no fishing line. She checked the bathroom, looked around the living room and kitchen with no luck.

"You'll have to make do with thread," she told Bernie, handing the kit over.

"I will need a bowl," he said, taking Gen's place on the arm of the chair.

She retrieved one from the kitchen and Bernie told her to fill it with alcohol as he threaded a needle. Once the bowl was filled, he soaked needle and thread and his fingers in the alcohol for a few minutes.

Gen and Eve moved closer to watch as Bernie began to make the first stitch. The moment the needle poked skin, Niko moved his face away, cringing and cursing.

Bernie frowned. "Hold still, or you are going to make me poke your eye out."

As he made the first stitch, Gen plucked a moist towelette package from the girl and tore it open. She knelt on the other side of the chair out of Bernie's way and took Niko's hand. She used the wipe to clean away the blood on it, her fingers moving along his, between them.

The strange intimacy of her touch made him squirm in the chair more than Bernie poking at his wound did. "You don't have to -"

"I haven't forgotten that if you hadn't shot that guy," Gen cut him off. "He would've strangled me. You saved my life _again_. What is this, the third time now?" She smiled at him. "The least I can do is wash the blood off your hands."

Niko tried to tell her that she couldn't, that there was too much blood on his hands to wash away, but the words were caught behind the sudden realization that he was starting to like her, and he was certain that wasn't a good thing.

Bernie ended each stitch with a square knot. Only five were needed, and when it was done, he examined his work. The stitches were neat, snug but not tight; almost professional. "I should've been a doctor."

"Nice job, Bern," Gen said. "My jeans aren't even stitched that well."

Bernie smiled and took a bandaid from Eve, sticking it over the sutured wound. "Keep it clean, Niko. And let it breathe once in a while. They should be able to come out in a few days."

He nodded. "Thanks, Bernie."

"What are friends for?"

Gen straightened up and looked down at Niko. "You should lie down for a while. Rest. We're not going anywhere anytime soon with that storm, and we're not exactly fit for travel with our supplies gone."

Bernie nodded in agreement. "And while you're resting, Gen and I can search the building for what we need. It should be safe enough."

Niko didn't like the idea of them splitting up, even in the same building, but he hurt too much to protest about it. "Just don't do anything stupid," he said, standing from the chair and moving to the couch.

He stretched back on it, and it was like sinking into a cloud. It felt good to lie down; it somehow took some of the pressure from his head, and he was so damn tired and achy, and it wasn't just his head, but everywhere, down to his bones.

Gen put a hand on Eve's shoulder, bending over to look her in the face. "Okay, baby girl, it's going to be your job to keep an eye on Niko while we're gone. We shouldn't be gone long, but if we aren't back in an hour and if he's gone to sleep, I want you to wake him up and ask him to tell you his name."

Eve made a confused face. "Why?"

"To make sure his head isn't getting worse."

"Oh. But there's no clock."

"There's a battery-operated one in the kitchen."

"Okay. But what if he doesn't know his name?"

"Then you keep him awake until we get back."

"But..." Her face creased with anxiety. "What if you don't come back?"

Gen gave her a reassuring smile. "When have I ever not come back?"

"Never."

Gen nodded. "Never. You have nothing to worry about." She pulled the girl forward and kissed the top of her head. "We'll be fine and we'll be back."

She turned to Bernie and the man tossed her M-16 to her. He had been kind enough to collect hers and Niko's weapons off the street earlier, as well as their enemies' guns, not that they were going to do them much good for long. She and Niko had taken all their extra magazines with them when they'd gone out on Cole's wild goose chase, but the rest of their ammo was back with their lost supplies, had been left behind to provide lighter travel. They were going to have to find either new weapons or more ammunition, and Gen didn't know how they were going to get either, unless they were lucky enough to come across another hidden arsenal. If they didn't...

They were shit out of luck.

* * *

Gen and Bernie's search was not a fortunate one. They were capable of covering most of the bottom floor apartments in an hour, but they found no guns or ammunition. However, they did find enough canned food and bottled water to last them a while, a propane camping stove and two, small propane cylinders, flashlights and batteries, a battery-operated lantern, a first aid kit, and some medication to help ease Niko's pain. Gen had also found a change of clothes; a black turtleneck, a pair of khaki cargo pants, and sturdy boots.

"We should head back after this one," Gen suggested as they made their way to an apartment at the end of the hall. "It feels like we've been gone for longer than an hour."

Bernie eyed her. "Worried about Niko?"

"I just don't want to leave them both alone for too long."

"He's not going to harm her, you know."

"I wasn't implying he would. But if they get any unwanted visitors and if Eve can't wake him up or something, she won't be able to defend herself."

"They will be fine," Bernie assured her. "You sure were getting friendly with him earlier."

Gen rolled her eyes. "I was just being nice, Bernie. The guy was in pain."

"So, now you care if he's in pain?"

She shrugged. "I'm human; I care if anyone is in pain...with the exception of Cole."

They stopped before the apartment door, and Bernie said, "You should be careful."

Gen gave him a confused look. "Why? Every apartment we've been to was empty. This one probably is, too."

"I'm not talking about that."

She groaned. "Well, I wish you'd shut up about the other thing."

Bernie sighed. "Just be careful. Niko is a good person and everything, but...you should stay away from him. Emotionally, I mean. Don't get close to him, Gen, whatever you do."

That gave her pause. "Bernie, you could fit three Grand Canyons between me and him, but I find it interesting that you would call him a good guy and then warn me away. Why are you telling me this?"

Bernie fumbled for an answer; his intentions had been good, but he'd said too much and dug himself into a hole. Now he needed a shovel to dig himself out. He found one in the form of misdirection. "I just mean...well, with this situation and everything...one of you could die and if you both were to get close...I don't know if he could handle it. He lost someone he cared about before..."

Gen made a face. "Um, then shouldn't you be telling _him_ this?"

"I just thought I should warn you, too...before anything happened."

She laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. "The warning isn't necessary. I may have learned to tolerate the guy, but toleration is as far as it goes. Will _ever_ go."

Bernie hoped that was true, for her sake. It was wrong on so many levels for her to end up liking someone who, in all likelihood, had killed her future husband. He wanted good things for his friends, they all needed good things now more than ever, but this was a thing like to end horribly. It would be better if it didn't happen at all. Secrets always had a way of exposing themselves; whether it came from a loose tongue, a burdened conscience, or something else, this secret would not remain in the dark forever. Bernie was not looking forward to the day when it came to light.

The moment Gen opened the apartment door, they were slapped in the face by a repulsive, stomach-churning smell.

Bernie gagged and put a hand over his nose and mouth. "_Gross!_ What is that?"

"Death," Gen said as she stepped inside. "Let's make this quick."

He didn't need telling twice. Bernie went straight to the kitchen to poke around while Gen moved down a hallway, where the sour reek grew stronger.

Her eyes were watering by the time she reached the bedroom door. Opening it, she was punched in the face by the smell this time. And the sight.

There was a man and woman laying on the bed, a small child between them. A boy no older than Eve. All had been shot in the head. There was blood spattered across the wall and soaked into the pillows and sheets, but it was rusty-colored, had dried long ago.

Pinching her nose, Gen stepped into the room and almost lost her stomach at the sight of all the maggots feeding on the bodies. A pesky business of flies buzzed around them. She saw the gun resting between the man and boy. It seemed the man had killed his wife and son first before turning the gun on himself.

_Why?_ she wondered. _Cole is a treacherous bastard, but he's keeping people alive. He was just down the street. Why didn't you look for help?_

She wanted to cry, but her tears were dried up for the day.

Gen shooed some flies away and reached for the gun, careful not to touch the bodies. It was a revolver. She flicked the cylinder open and was not surprised to find the chambers empty. She checked the nightstand for extra bullets, but the drawer was filled with only family photos. She didn't want to look at any of them.

Turning from the gruesome scene, Gen found the box of ammunition sitting on a dresser. She left it there for the time being and went to search the closet, hoping for more guns and ammunition. She got neither. Grabbing the box and tucking the revolver in her waistband, she left the room, glad to be putting the sight and the brunt of the smell behind her.

Bernie was still going through the kitchen cabinets when she returned to the living room.

"Find anything?"

"Just the usual. Cans," he replied with a sour look. "Cans, cans, cans. You know, I would almost kill for an actual meal. Even a big, artery-clogging burger from Burger Shot."

"I would kill for a hot shower...and a bowl of Rocky Road ice cream."

Bernie glanced at her. "Rocky Road?"

Her brows rose. "Don't tell me you don't know what that is."

He shook his head. "I've never heard of it."

"You've missed out on a good thing. It's the ice cream of all ice creams. Chocolate ice cream mixed with tiny marshmellows and crumbled almonds." She sighed wistfully. "And I'll never know its sweet taste again. That's really depressing."

"All that's going on around us, and _that's_ what depresses you?"

"I guess it's the whole taking-things-for-granted part that really depresses me. I liked it, but I never really appreciated being able to have it...if that makes any sense."

"It does," Bernie said. "I think we all have things we have taken for granted. It's sad that it must come to this extreme for us to really appreciate the things we had, even the little things."

Gen nodded in agreement. "Come on. Let's head back."

* * *

When they entered their borrowed apartment, they found Niko standing at the window and Eve curled up on the couch, fast asleep.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be the one resting?" Gen asked, dropping her tote of supplies by the door.

"The kid was tired; I thought it best to let her sleep," the man said. "How did the search go?"

Gen shrugged, but before she could open her mouth, Bernie said with an excited tone, "We found a camping stove!"

"I was more concerned about weapons and ammo," Niko said. "A camping stove ain't going to protect us against lunatics."

"Yes, well, we will have a hot meal for once, and that's at least something to be grateful for."

Bernie took the stove to the kitchen and began setting it up. Gen helped him, taking one of the propane cylinders out of his tote and hooking it up to the stove.

"We at least stocked up enough nutritional crap to last us a while. We also found flashlights, batteries, and a first aid kit. And I found myself a new outfit." She unzipped and took off the jacket Niko had let her borrow and stepped out from behind the counter to model herself in a joking and mocking manner. "What do you think? It's the latest in survivor's attire."

"Lovely," Niko replied with a dry tone. "It really brings out the color of your eyes."

Gen chuckled and tossed his jacket to him. "I also got you a little present," she said, kneeling in front of the bag she had dropped near the door.

"I'm afraid to even ask."

She brought out a small, rattling bottle and pitched it to him. He caught it on the fly, and read the label, holding the bottle between thumb and forefinger. "Acetaminophen."

Gen straightened up. "For the head pain."

"Is it?" he asked, and Gen did not mistake the suspicion in his tone.

"Don't you trust me?"

"When it comes to you and medication? I trust you as much as I trust those lunatics out there."

"And here I thought we were beyond all this. Well, I guess this is what I get for trying to do something nice," she said, offended, as she returned to Bernie's side.

Maybe he was being too hard on her. "I will go out on a limb and trust you this time. Thanks, Gen."

She shrugged. "Anything happen while we were gone?"

After popping a few pills, he answered, "The rain stopped, and two lunatics were down on the street earlier, feeding on the corpses we left behind. They're gone now. Other than that, things have been uneventful."

"Good. Maybe we'll get some peace and quiet for a change."

Bernie found a pot in the cabinet and a handheld can-opener and some matches in a drawer. He handed the can-opener to Gen, then turned one of the burners on, lit a match, and fired up the stove.

Using propane in an enclosed space was just a carbon monoxide death waiting to happen, so Niko cracked the window open to let more oxygen in. And the bitter cold came with it.

Though it was no longer raining, the sky was still heavy and choked with grim, grey clouds moving at a snail's pace. They seemed to promise even more rain.

"So," Gen said as she poked through Bernie's tote. "On the menu tonight we have soup..." She retrieved cans from the bag, one by one. "Soup, and more soup."

"I think we should have the soup," Bernie quipped.

"Soup it is, then."

Bernie put the pot over the burner as Gen opened a can and dumped its contents into it. Bernie retrieved a wooden spoon from a drawer and began to stir the soup up. It wasn't long before the whole apartment came alive with the heady scent of cooking vegetables and meat and broth. Despite having witnessed maggot-infested corpses a little over an hour ago, Gen could not deny the empty ache in her belly. They hadn't eaten anything in two days, and while the soup was no chef's masterpiece, it promised a taste of culinary heaven, or so her hunger would have her believe.

She hovered over the pot, inhaling the mouth-watering aroma, and tried to pick a floating carrot out, but Bernie smacked her hand with the wooden spoon.

"You will wait like the rest of us," he admonished, waving the utensil under her nose.

"Jeez, Bernie, when did you become the mother of our little group?" Gen teased.

"When I realized I am the only one among us who acts like an adult. Someone has to look out for our basic needs, too. You and Niko are good at knowing what to do, coming up with plans and strategies. I'm good at this; taking care of people, seeing to needs. I'm a lover, not a fighter."

"I think you have both of those things in spades, Bern. We would've died if you hadn't followed us, and that took planning and strategy. It brings up a good question, too. How were you able to leave the club? I would've thought the guards on the roof would hound you with questions, keep you from leaving."

"I thought they would, too. So I didn't let them. I overheard that someone had come back from a scouting mission, so I used that. I told the guards on the roof that Cole wanted to see them, that the scout had learned a big mob of freaks were close to the club and Cole needed to discuss a defense plan with them in case the freaks got too close. They bought it. Most of them, anyway. One guy stayed behind to keep watch, so I just hit him in the head with my rifle when he wasn't looking. It was all easy from there."

Gen laughed, admiration sparking in her eyes. "What did I tell you? A lover and a fighter in spades!"

"I'm glad you finally accepted the part of you that will keep you alive, Bernie" Niko said from the window, sparing his friend a small smile.

"I don't like deception or hurting or killing people," Bernie admitted. "But...unfortunately, it seems necessary these days. And I will do what I must to protect my friends. You guys are all I have."

"Don't you have any family out there?" Gen asked.

Bernie shook his head. "I was an only child, hon, and my parents are long dead. I have an uncle and aunt and some cousins somewhere, but I have never met them. And I don't think I would want to. My uncle is my mother's brother and for as long as I can remember, they were never on speaking terms. She never told me why, just that his family had no love for ours. So, if there is any truth to that..." He shook his head again and let her fill in the blanks.

"But what if there isn't?"

Bernie shrugged. "It makes no difference now. I have no idea where he is. He could be living in Serbia or anywhere in Europe. Or they could all be dead. I will never know."

"I'm sorry, Bernie."

He smiled. "It's okay. You guys are all the family I need."

When the soup was ready, Bernie poured them all a bowl and set out some bottles of water while Gen went to wake Eve up. It took a few nudges, but the girl finally roused, rubbing groggily at her eyes.

"Dinner is ready," Gen informed her.

"I dreamed about her again," Eve said, sitting up.

"The woman?"

Eve nodded. "But she didn't have eggs this time. She was inside a cave, inside a metal thing, and the metal thing was inside this..." She threw her arms wide. "_Big_ block of ice. And there were others like her, in the ice. And there were people all dressed in white trying to get them out. The woman's eyes were open. I guess she was watching them. I don't like dreaming about her, Gen. She scares me."

"Nothing will ever hurt you in a dream, even if it seems like it can."

"Promise?"

"Promise. Come on, let's eat. I bet you're hungry, hm?"

"Starving!"

The group gathered at the kitchen island, taking a seat on the stools and Bernie passed out the bowls. He was the first to try the soup, earning expectant looks from the others.

He shrugged. "I've had better, but it's okay for something out of a can."

Eve, who was seated between Niko and Gen, began shoveling soup into her mouth and promptly spit it all back into the bowl. "Ouch! Hot!"

"Slow down," Gen said with a laugh, scooting a bottle of water closer to her. "Here, drink."

The girl drank, then returned to her bowl, eating more slowly and blowing on the soup on her spoon before putting it in her mouth, but once it all had cooled to a more edible temperature, she began scarfing it down again, making loud slurping noises that reminded Gen too much of one of the first lunatics she had seen, sucking blood out of a severed arm. Suddenly, she wasn't so hungry anymore, but for the sake of her health, she forced the soup down.

Eve was midway into her second helping when the rest of them finished up their first.

"You sure know how to heat a can of soup, Bernie," Gen commented.

"Um...thank you? There's a lot left if you want more."

Gen waved a negatory hand. "I'm topped off."

"Niko?"

"I'm good."

"There's so much left," Bernie lamented, staring into the pot. "We can't let it go to waste."

Niko gave a careless shrug, sucking a drop of broth off his thumb.

Eve pushed her bowl to Bernie. "I want more! Please."

"How can someone so small eat so much?" Gen teased.

"I'm growing! My daddy said-"

A knock at the apartment door cut her off, and just like that, the atmosphere in the room changed, became tense. Inquiring and confused looks were exchanged.

"Who the hell could that be?" Gen asked, her voice low.

"More importantly, what do they want?" Niko said.

In a matter of seconds, they were both armed and standing before the front door. Bernie stood protectively in front of Eve with his rifle in hand.

The knock came again, more insistent, and with a voice this time. "Anyone in there?"

Niko opened the door. Two Glocks and a Dragunov were aimed at the unexpected visitor.

It was Connor, standing before them with his hands up in surrender and a grim look on his face. "Don't shoot me. Please. I need your help. I...I have no where else to go."

* * *

**A/N:**

In reponse to **Pyro Yoshi**: Yes, Little Jacob and Brucie will be making an appearance sooner or later. Michelle/Karen might have a minor role to play. And there may be mention of some other minor character's fates. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story. :)


	10. Chapter 10: Cold Paralysis

**Chapter Ten: Cold Paralysis**

* * *

**C**onnor sat uneasily in the recliner, shadowed by a mistrustful-looking Serbian pointing a gun between his eyes and a confused American standing at his side. "Look, I get that you don't trust me after what hap-"

"I don't think you do get it or you wouldn't be here," Niko cut him off. "You are either stupid or you have a death wish."

"Or he's telling the truth about not having anywhere else to go," Gen said. "Let's hear what he has to say before you shoot him."

Connor got a worried look. "He's not really going to shoot me...is he?"

"I'm pointing a gun at your head, idiot," Niko said. "The thought obviously crossed my mind, and it's looking better by the second. So, I would suggest you start explaining yourself."

"Okay, okay." Connor sighed. "After what Cole made me do, I realized you were right." He looked at Gen, severity in his face. "He's not the guy I thought he was."

"What did he make you do?" Gen asked, though she already had a good idea what it was.

"I'll tell you, but...could you ask him to stop pointing that thing at me?"

"I don't fucking think so," said Niko.

"Come on, Niko," Gen said. "You're making him nervous."

"Good. He should be nervous."

"He's one unarmed man. Even if he wanted to do something, he can't. At least stop pointing it at his head."

Niko knew she had a point, but his hesitation was still there. He didn't like that this man was here, nor the fact that he had known where they were. The whole thing smelled funny, and he was sick of things smelling funny.

"Okay..." Niko said with a menacing look. He lowered the gun from Connor's head, and aimed it at his knee instead. "Talk. Quickly. I have an itchy trigger finger."

"Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph," Connor moaned, squirming in the chair. "Is he insane?"

"Possibly," Gen answered. "So, you might want to do what the man says."

"Cole made me send those men after you." Connor felt a gun muzzle press hard against his knee. Niko looked very unhappy with him. "Ah! J-Just calm down, okay? In my own defense, I didn't know they were going to try to kill you! I swear to God! I just thought he'd changed his mind and wanted them to lend a hand with the supply run he sent you on! I only learned afterward that Cole actually wanted you both taken out! I swear! Please don't shoot me."

Niko remained uncertain and suspicious. "How did you find us?"

"I saw the bodies on the street," Connor answered without hesitation. "One was shot in the head and the other looked like he'd been stabbed a hundred times. They were both eaten up at the throat, too, but the Reds don't stab or shoot, so I figured you guys must've killed them before the Reds got to them. Considering it was storming and I saw that you left all your supplies back at the club, I figured you wouldn't have gone far. What better place to wait out the storm and restock your supplies than at an apartment building? It's the only one on this street. And lucky for me you guys chose the first apartment on the bottom floor."

"Why are you here?"

"Because, like I said, I have no where else to go. I couldn't stay with Cole's group anymore, not after what he made me do. Killing Reds is one thing, but I want no hand in killing what few normal people that're left in the world, intentionally or not. It's unspeakable. Besides, you guys seem like good people. Well, she does and he does." He gestured at Gen then Bernie, then he looked up at Niko, frowning a little. "You're just...well, no offense, but you seem kinda...unstable."

Connor flinched prematurely, expecting to have his knee blown off, but Gen said in a considering manner, "We could always use another person good with a gun."

Niko gave her a hard, angry look, then he latched onto her arm with a vise-like grip. "Can I speak to you for a moment? _Alone_?" It wasn't a request, as he was already dragging her off into the kitchen.

"Have you lost your goddam mind? He is _not_ teaming up with us."

"He doesn't have anywhere to go. We can't just leave him on his own."

"I can. He's one of them; he sent those men to kill us!"

"Um..." said Connor. "I can actually still hear you. Kind of defeats the purpose of standing way over there."

He was ignored.

"He sent those men to kill us under orders that weren't exactly clear to him," Gen argued.

"Then he shouldn't have followed them if he didn't know what the fuck he was doing."

"He trusted Cole because Cole knows how to lie and make people believe what he wants," she said. "It was a mistake a lot of people have made, but he isn't to blame for that."

"I don't trust him."

Gen rolled her eyes. "What else is new? You don't trust anyone. I'm surprised you even have any friends."

"Don't make this about me! Trust is earned, Gen, not given freely."

"Hey," Connor spoke up again. "I figured it would come to this, so I brought you guys something that might earn your trust." He reached for his backpack sitting by the recliner, then thought better of it when Niko advanced on him, pointing the Glock between his eyes again.

"Don't you fucking move!"

Connor put his hands in the air, eyes wide. "Okay! Goddam, you're wound up tight! Just look in the backpack, all right? There's proof in there that you can trust me."

Niko didn't move. "Gen, do it."

Gen did it without protest, kneeling before the pack and opening it up. She was rather surprised by what she found inside. "Niko..." She looked up at him, pulling out a small ammunition box and opening it, revealing the bullets inside. "It's all of our ammo."

"See?" Connor said. "If I was your enemy, if I meant you harm, would I have brought this? Would I have even come unarmed? An enemy isn't going to supply you with what you need to kill them."

"Maybe, maybe not." Niko narrowed his eyes. "How did you know to bring the ammo in the first place? How did you even know we would be alive?"

"I took a chance on you. You guys were able to survive a few days on the streets prior to your arrival at the club. I figured you'd be able to handle two of Cole's men."

Niko considered this, but his eyes stayed narrowed in suspicion. "I still don't trust you."

Connor smiled, nervously. "Hey, as long as you don't have any inclination to splatter my brains around or blow off my knee anymore, that's fine. I'll earn trust. No problem. So...can I stay with you guys?" His smile turned hopeful.

"Get the hell out," Niko commanded. "We need to discuss this in private."

Connor nodded and stood from the chair, backing away, as he had no intention of turning his back on a potentially unsound man armed with a gun.

When the apartment door closed behind him, the little group converged at the kitchen island.

"Shall we do this the old fashion, democratic way? Put it to a vote?" Gen asked.

"I think we should weigh the pros and cons," Bernie suggested. "If there are more pros, we let him come with us. If there are more cons, we send him on his way. That is a more fair approach. I have a feeling we would only cast our vote for one reason, and we should have many reasons for him staying or going. We may be deciding whether he lives or dies."

Gen assented with a nod of her head. "Good point. So, let's start with the cons."

Niko went first, to no one's surprise. "He's one of them; he can't be trusted."

"That's not a fair reason," Gen disputed. "There were children and old people at that club. Does that make them treacherous bastards just because they're a part of Cole's group? You can't lump them together with him; it's a biased judgment."

"He sent those men to kill us."

"We've already been through this," Gen said with a bored tone. "He didn't know what he was doing."

"Then there is your con. He can't think for himself."

"That's not-"

"That is a fair assumption, hon," Bernie said.

"No, it's not. He left safety because of what he was made to do, for moralistic reasons. That's thinking for himself."

Bernie chewed his lip. "Okay, good point."

"He could be lying about not knowing what Cole made him do," Niko suggested.

"Or he could be telling the truth."

"We are not going to get anywhere on this topic," Bernie said. "We need solid reasons, not could bes or maybes. So, let's just forget the whole thing with Cole for now."

"The thing with Cole is the reason why we're doing this in the first place," Niko reminded him.

"Just for now, Niko. We will come back to it later."

"Fine. Having someone else with us is going to slow us down more."

"I agree with that," Gen said, nodding. "Also, having a bigger group will attract more lunatic attention, or anyone else who might want to do us harm."

"Now we are getting somewhere," Bernie said. "Anything else?"

"An extra mouth to feed means our supplies will dwindle faster."

"He's not armed, either," Gen said. "And I have a feeling a certain someone among us will want him to stay that way."

"You're right," Niko replied in a heartbeat. "And that ain't going to be up for debate, either."

"So, he's not going to be useful in a fight."

"We will count not being armed and not being useful in a fight as one con; they are basically the same thing," Bernie said. "So, we have four cons."

"I can't think of anything else," said Gen.

"Niko?" Bernie prompted.

He considered for a moment, then reluctantly admitted, "Nothing else comes to mind at the moment."

"Okay, so what are the pros?"

"Since he won't be useful in a fight, he can be made useful as a pack mule. He can carry the brunt of our supplies, taking the weight off of us," the woman said.

"I have no problem carrying my supplies," Niko said. "It hasn't weighed me down."

"If that's the case, then he has room to carry his own supplies, plus extra stuff. That crosses out the dwindling supplies con."

"Okay, so now we are down to three cons and one pro."

"It doesn't count as a pro if it negates a con," Niko argued.

Bernie sighed. "Three cons and no pro."

"He's an extra pair of eyes," Gen said. "That'll mean we have four people watching out for lunatics, five if you count Eve. So, we'll have all our main directions covered."

"If we run into lunatics, we can use him as bait or a distraction," Niko said with a fiendish half-smile.

Gen gave him a look. "I can't believe you would even suggest...no, scratch that. I _can_ believe you would suggest that."

"I hate to admit it," said Bernie. "But that does work as a pro, but I'm certain we will _all_ make sure Connor doesn't get killed if it should come to that...right, Niko?"

The man merely shrugged, that one corner of his mouth still sinfully curved.

"He can be useful as a reloader," Gen put forth.

A perplexed look inhabited the man's face. "A _what_?"

"Reloader. In the midst of a fight, he can reload our empty mags with fresh bullets, providing us with a steady flow of ammo. That'll give us time to take down more lunatics if we happen to find ourselves in a situation where we can actually do damage and not get mobbed to death."

Niko nodded. "That is possible, I guess."

"Cons and pros are now tied...unless you can think of anything else for either side," Bernie said.

There was a knock on the door, and then Connor's voice, "Hey, you guys done yet? It's uh...kinda lonely out here. And spooky."

"He's annoying," Niko promptly added to the con list. "And we don't need another annoying person. Gen does the job well enough on her own."

Gen pursed her lips. "I will reach across this table and slap you, sir."

"No, you won't. I will see it coming..._madam_."

"I didn't say _when_ I'd do it," she replied with a toothy grin.

"Anyway," Bernie disrupted. "Being annoying doesn't count; it's an opinion not a fact."

"It's a fact to me."

"Maybe, but not one we can all agree on. So, let's go back to the thing with Cole."

"We're not going to find a tie breaker there," Gen insisted. "It's all doubt and speculation. Connor may be here to deceive us, or he may be here because he has no where to go. He may be a liar or he may be telling the truth. It seems more likely that he may be telling the truth. I mean, only an idiot would come unarmed and supply us with ammo if he meant to do us harm."

"So, he's an idiot," Niko suggested. "Another con."

"Or we're the only safety he has now. The right thing to do is to let him come with us. That's a fact, and it's a pro."

"No, it ain't. It's no pro if he betrays us."

"It's a pro," Gen insisted. "For our conscience's sake."

Niko snorted. "Not mine. You think I give a fuck what happens to him? I don't."

"So you're a liar? You haven't really changed? Should I just go back to believing you're nothing more than a heartless, murdering bastard?"

"Believe what you want. All I will say is if that was true, we wouldn't be standing here weighing the pros and cons. I would have killed him already."

"You don't need a gun to kill someone, Niko. Words can be just as deadly. In this case, all it will take is a 'no' and Connor will be left to the streets alone, and he will die on them, alone. Maybe you'll be able to live with yourself, but I won't."

"Will you be able to live with yourself if he betrays us and gets one of us killed?"

"That depends entirely on which one of us he gets killed," she shot back, coldly.

Niko folded his arms, a stiff look on his face. "Oh, really?"

Frowning, Gen dropped her gaze to the table. "No." She heaved a long sigh and leaned her elbows on the table, chin in her hands. "I don't know what to do. I can't just leave Connor to fend for himself, but I know we can't exactly trust him, either."

"I got an idea," Bernie said, leaning over the table and lowering his voice to a whisper. "We let him stay with us for a while, but we _pretend_ to trust him. If he thinks we trust him and if he actually means us harm, he will act sooner. And we will, of course, be prepared for that."

Gen looked at him in surprise. Then she glanced at Niko. "Has he always been this conniving?"

"I'm as surprised as you are."

Bernie frowned. "Conniving?"

She gave him a reassuring pat him on the cheek. "I meant that in the best way possible. You're definitely onto something. Essentially, we want to force him to act, and by forcing him to act, we can draw him into a trap. To do that, we're going to have to arm him."

"_No_," Niko persisted. "We are not giving him a weapon. That is the stupidest-"

"I'm not saying we give him one now," Gen cut him off, keeping her voice lowered. "In time. The more gradual we give him fake trust, the more the trust will appear genuine to him; he knows we don't trust him now, so it'll look suspicious if we show him trust too soon. He's probably going to try to earn it with some selfless deed or something. That's when we say 'oh, you're not such a bad guy', then we give him a gun-"

"And then he shoots one of us with it," he cut in.

Gen made a face. "Would you let me finish? He needs a gun if he's planning anything, otherwise it's pointless. And he's probably expecting us to give him one when he thinks he has our trust. So, we give him one with the firing pin removed; he won't know it's been removed until he tries to use the gun. And giving him one will build his confidence. If he's got something bad planned for us, that confidence will make him act sooner, and that's when the trap closes. He can't do shit with a gun that can't fire, and we're free to fill him with lead."

Niko considered this, then admitted, "You know, that might actually work."

"Then we're agreed this is what we're going to do?"

"I guess so."

"I'm on board," Bernie said. "It was my idea, after all. Well, sort of."

"I'll go let him back in," Gen said, and made for the door.

When she opened it, she found Connor a ways down the corridor, leaning against the wall with his arms folded at his chest and looking quite bored.

"You can come in now."

As soon as she closed the door behind him, the three of them crowded the man there. Connor looked between them all, nervous.

"You guys aren't going to...jump me, are you?"

"Always a possibility," said Niko.

Gen elbowed him, then said to Connor, "We've come to an agreement."

"We have decided to let you come with us," Bernie said.

"On several conditions," Niko added.

Connor nodded, looking relieved. "What are the conditions?"

"You will not be armed."

Connor's face fell. "Guys, I get that you don't want me to have a weapon, but how am I supposed to defend myself or help out if we come across any Reds?"

"We'll defend you," Gen said, "And the only thing you'll be doing in a fight is loading our mags when they run empty, keeping the ammo flowing."

"You will also be carrying some of our supplies, as well as your own. It will be your responsibility to keep yourself stocked up on what you need. It ain't going to be our concern," Niko said.

Connor nodded. "That all sounds fair enough. Look, guys, I just want to say-"

"And you will not speak unless you are spoken to," Niko cut in.

"Too much, Niko," Gen said. "I think we can let him talk."

"Can we? Fine, but I won't be held responsible for what I do to him if he annoys me."

"I'm trying not to annoy you," Connor said. "You're the one person I _don't_ want to annoy."

"You ain't trying hard enough."

"That's it for the conditions," Gen said. "So...welcome aboard, I guess."

"Thanks. I really appreciate you guys doing this."

"It's the right thing to do," Bernie said. "As Gen has said in the past, we're all in this together. So, we need to help each other out."

"I'm glad there's people out there who still know what the right thing to do is," he said.

Bernie nodded, then grinned. "So, Connor, would you like some soup?"

* * *

"Man, that really hit the spot," Connor commented, slurping his last spoonful of broth. "It seems like forever since I've had something hot to eat."

"With as many supply runs your former group must've been on, I would've assumed you'd come across a propane stove or something, like we did," Gen said from beside him.

"No, Cole usually had a list of things he sent with the supply runners," Connor explained. "Necessary stuff. A propane stove is more of a luxury. We mostly ate emergency rations or heated a can of whatever over a candle flame. Never really worked well, though."

"Would you care for another bowl?" Bernie asked.

Connor shook his head. "That's okay. Thanks, though."

"This is probably a pointless question to ask _you_," Niko spoke up. "But do you know of a way to get into Broker?"

"No, sorry. I'm sure you know all the bridges were blown up, and not just the regular vehicular bridges, but the ones the subway runs on, too. The Booth Tunnel was even sealed off, with wreckage."

"Did any of your supply runners happen to come across a police station with a helicopter?" Gen asked. "Or maybe a hospital with one?"

"It's funny you should mention that," Connor said. "The day after the lunatic's first gathering, we saw a police chopper take off from that station in Suffolk. Flew right out over the islands, heading towards the mainland. That's the only police station we've seen with one, though. The one in Lancaster might have had a chopper, but the whole building was destroyed. And we haven't seen a hospital with one, either."

Niko's frustration showed plainly on his face, and in his voice, "It's hopeless. I'm never going to find a way there."

"Stop it," Gen told him. "You will."

"You don't know that."

"I'm telling you we will find a way," she asserted. "You have my word that we will. And I never-"

"Break your word," he finished for her, shaking his head. "You may end up breaking it anyway. At this point, it's looking inevitable."

"Have you considered finding a way over the wall?" Connor suggested.

"With what?" Niko replied. "We have nothing that will get us over a seventeen foot wall, and we've found nothing remotely useful for the task."

"Plus, we don't have a way across the river," Gen added.

"You could swim," Connor said.

"And die of pnumonia," she said. "It's too cold. If we adults don't get sick, Eve definitely will. It's hard enough to find food, and considering ninety percent of the population was hopped up on some kind of medication before all this happened, it would be safe to assume that the pharmacies have been picked clean."

"We could always try that place where you can take aerial tours of the city," Connor mentioned.

"Those choppers are usually just sitting out there on the dock," Niko pointed out. "Someone would have found them by now."

"I doubt it. There aren't many of us normal people out there," Connor said. "And how many of them do you think can pilot a chopper?"

"I don't think the know how will matter," Niko argued. "The situation is hopeless enough that people will take the risk to escape this shit. And if you're going to die, better to die trying to leave than getting ripped apart and eaten."

"It may be a long shot," Gen said. "But maybe it's worth a try. I mean, we don't exactly have any other ideas. And there's always the chance we'll come across a hardware shop or an outdoor retailer that hasn't been looted or destroyed. Maybe we'll find a twenty foot ladder or something. We'll just have to swim the river and find a way to tow the ladder with us, and hope none of us gets sick or drowns."

"Inflatable rafts," Connor suggested. "An outdoor retailer would carry them, and the Coast Guard will have them."

"You're forgetting," Gen said. "The Coast Guard headquarters is in Alderney."

"Oh. That's right. Damn."

She smiled. "At least you're trying. That's more than I'd expect from one of Cole's men."

Connor frowned. "Come on, cut me some slack. I'm a good guy."

"You're an idiot," Niko corrected, ever the blunt one.

"Look, I made a mistake trusting Cole," Connor said, his temper flaring. "I'm sure you've made plenty of mistakes yourself, so don't stand there and act like your shit don't stink."

"Excuse me?"

"Let's play nice, boys," Bernie insisted.

"Yeah, stop instigating, Niko," Gen added.

"I wasn't instigating. I was stating a fact."

"You need to get your facts staight, then," Connor said.

"You have already proven this one accurate," Niko shot back.

Bernie sighed noisily. "This is so typical. By some miracle, you and Gen finally stop fighting like two wet cats in a bag...only for you to find someone _else_ to argue with. Will we ever know a moment of peace?"

Gen pouted. "I'm heartbroken. I thought he was saving those fights just for me."

"I'll give you a fight, if you like."

She laughed. "Tempting, but I'm going to pass now that I know you're an argument whore. I thought our petty fights meant something to you. I'm going to be crying into my pillow tonight."

Niko pulled a face. "Shut up."

"So, um...what's the plan?" Connor asked. "Are we staying here for the night or moving on?"

Gen glanced at the kitchen wall clock. "It's only 2 PM. Plenty of daylight left."

Niko nodded. "We should make use of it while we can. It may storm again."

"Off to find a chopper, are we?"

He shrugged. "As you said, it may be a long shot, but we are strapped for ideas. Let's do this."

"You sure you're good to go with that head?"

"It hurts, but not like it did. Those pills helped."

Gen smiled. "See? Trusting people doesn't always come back to bite you in the ass."

"I suppose it all depends on who you trust. Thanks for not doping me up again," he replied with a dry tone.

"What are friends for?"

"Oh, we are friends now? I wasn't aware."

Gen shrugged as she slipped off her stool. "Well, it might be worth trying to be, for Eve and Bernie's sanity if not our own."

"Maybe. Stranger things have happened."

"Well, potential friend, we've got some preparing to do before we head out. Guess we better get at it."

* * *

The temperature had dropped several degrees from earlier. Even without the gust of storm winds, the air was still frigid, biting at exposed skin and making breath fog.

Eve complained about it the moment they all stepped outside, and Niko was kind enough to wrap her up in his jacket; it was big enough on her to provide warmth to every inch of her skin but her face, though she pushed the collar up over her head as a makeshift hood, so at least she could keep her ears warm.

She looked up at him with a big smile. "Thanks!"

"Anytime, little one."

Niko headed off down Galveston Avenue, taking the point position as was usual, and keeping to the sidewalk. Eve hurried along after him, trying to keep up with his longer strides. Connor followed with bulging backpack, and Gen and Bernie took up the rear, walking side by side.

"Is that crap too heavy for you?" Gen asked the newcomer. She'd noticed he'd had some trouble with the weight before they'd left the apartment, and he was walking a little wobbly now.

"Uh...no, not really. I'm just used to traveling with only a rifle, so this'll take time adjusting to. Something keeps poking me in the ass, though."

"If it gets to be too much for you, let us know," she said. "We can't afford to have you slowing us down."

"Yeah, sure. Thanks for the concern," was Connor's caustic reply.

"Cheer up," Gen said. "We'll only be out on the streets for about four hours. You should adjust to the weight by then."

"It's kind of hard to be cheerful when everyone hates you."

"It's not hate, it's just a lack of trust."

"Well, Scary up there hates me, I know that for sure. And to be honest, he's the one I'm concerned about. I really don't want to be shot in my sleep or when my back is turned."

"Don't worry, Connor," Gen said, grinning. "He's the kind of guy who'll shoot you in the face, not in the back."

"Oh, great. That's real reassuring."

Up ahead, Niko passed a street corner, froze mid-step as his head turned to his left, then he backtracked with all haste to take cover behind a tall fence at the corner. Eve was beside him, trying to look around him to see what he'd seen, but Niko eased her back. He didn't want her to see it, as she was like to scream and alert the threat. He waved the others over.

"What's up?" Bernie asked with a low voice when they were gathered together.

"Two," Niko said. "On that street. Feeding." They were the same ones he'd seen earlier, feasting on the corpses of Cole's men, but he felt there was no point mentioning that. Lunatics were lunatics.

Eve whimpered and pressed against his hip. Niko put a comforting hand on the back of her head, and went on, "They are turned away from us. We can make it across the street, but we will have to do it one at a time. As a group, we might attract their attention."

"If there's only two, why don't we just kill the bastards?" Connor suggested.

"Killing them is a last resort, when there's no other choice. If there are more nearby, they will be drawn to the sound of gunshots," Niko said. "How did you survive on those supply runs?"

Connor looked abashed. "Well, uh, I didn't actually go on a lot of them."

"It shows," Niko remarked. "Gen, you will go first. I will send the kid over to you next."

The woman nodded, checked around the side of the fence to make sure the loonies were still busy, then made her way across the street, her step casual and silent. Once she made it to the other side, Gen hid behind the wall of the corner building and checked the lunatics again, then she nodded to Niko.

The man looked down at the girl. "Go to Gen. Walk, don't run; running will make noise. Keep your eyes on her. Don't look at them."

"I'm scared," Eve said, clutching the jacket to her as if it might keep her safe.

"It's okay. We are not going to let anything happen to you."

"Promise?"

"That is a promise."

Eve took a breath and turned in Gen's direction. The woman made a gesture that it was safe to cross, and Eve stepped out into the street. She kept her eyes on Gen, but the disgusting sounds the lunatics were making eventually got to her, and she looked at them. And she froze.

_No_, Niko thought in dismay. _Keep walking._ He thought the words at her, over and over, as if he might will them into her. It was all he could do. She was caught midway between him and Gen; they couldn't exactly call to her and she was too far away to hear a whisper.

But Eve couldn't move. Her eyes were enormous as they filled with the horrible sight of feeding lunatics; the hideous amount of blood and the obscene moist, slurping sounds - things that should only appear in nightmares or horror movies, but were all too real. Eve trembled and was not aware when her bladder let go.

Whether it was the smell of urine or the smell of fear, the lunatics' attention was drawn. The man and woman turned toward the girl, dropping their limp, drained victim, their faces smeared with a crimson as bright as their eyes.

Eve screeched like a siren, and turned to run away. She tripped over the hem of the jacket and fell on her hands and knees as the lunatics sounded off in rage and barreled on her.

The others seemed to have the same thought at the same time, for they all broke cover at the same moment and bolted to the girl's rescue. Bernie rushed to her side as Connor went the opposite direction, heading right for the on-coming lunatics, and effectively getting in Niko and Gen's way before they could fire off any shots. Connor threw himself into the lunatic woman's path, and she fell over him. Gen promptly put a bullet in her head and Niko ended the lunatic man's life in the same manner.

Connor pulled himself up and turned around only to meet two disapproving looks.

"Are you nuts!?" Gen scolded.

"I told you he was an idiot," said Niko with contempt.

Connor shrugged the insults off. "It worked, didn't it?"

"This time," Niko said. "We might not be so lucky the next."

"Well, excuse the hell out of me for trying to help!"

"We had it handled. When we want your help, we'll fucking ask for it. Until then, stay the fuck out of our way and stick to the task we gave you!"

Connor threw up his hands in a gesture of anger. "Fine! Fucking asshole."

In one fluid step, Niko was standing almost nose to nose with the guy. "I don't think I heard you right. You want to say that again?"

Gen pushed the men apart before things could get worse. "Easy, guys. Deep breaths. Count to ten."

Connor backed away, but not before saying, "You got fucking problems, man."

"Yes," Niko snapped at him. "You are one of them."

Connor waved a dismissive hand at him and went to go stand near Bernie, who was kneeling on the ground beside Eve, trying to calm her. The girl was wailing.

When she saw Gen and Niko approach, Eve scrambled to her feet and flew at the man, attaching herself to his waist with a strength that made him fall back a few steps.

"I'm sorry! I messed up!" she wailed at him. "I tried not to look, honest! I couldn't help it! _I'm sorry_!"

Niko held her back by the shoulders and knelt in front of her. The girl stared at her feet, ashamed and sobbing. "Look at me."

Eve shook her head, wildly. "Just yell at me and get it over with!"

He tilted her chin up and found it difficult to look in those sad, terrible blue eyes of hers. He made himself. "I'm not going to yell at you. This is not your fault, okay?"

Eve sniffled. "But I looked."

"You couldn't help it," he said, brushing a tear off her cheek. "This is my fault. I should not have sent you across on your own."

The girl's face scrunched up, sadness mixed with anger. "You're lying again."

"I'm not-"

"Guys," Bernie cut him off, pointing. "We got company. A lot of unwanted company."

Everyone looked in the direction Bernie's finger aimed at. There was a mob of lunatics up the street where the other two had been feeding on their victim. There had to be thirty. The foremost broke in a rush for the non-lunatics, and the rest followed.

This was not a fight they could win.

"Oh, holy shit, _run_!" Connor cried, and shot off down Galveston, Bernie taking the cue to follow.

Gen stayed behind, shooting off a few rounds at the closest loonies. Three fell dead.

Niko picked the girl up. She was going to slow him, but she wouldn't be able to keep pace with the rest of them, either. A sacrifice had to be made. He gave Gen a look. "Stop fooling around with them and run."

"I got your back," she said. "Go."

"Stay close," he insisted, and took off after Connor and Bernie, the girl's arms squeezing his neck for fear of falling.

Midway down the street, Gen turned and backpedaled, seeing how far away the lunatics were. They were close and gaining a lot of ground on them. She leveled her M-16, switched it to three-round burst mode, and fired, aiming at legs. Headshots would be near impossible on the move. All she could do was slow some of them down.

Her three-round burst took down two lunatics in the front, and that had a domino effect on the ones coming in behind them. Running too fast to stop in time, lunatic fell over prone lunatic. That one shot alone had slowed down eight, but there were still others in front and getting closer.

Gen fired off another three-round burst, then whirled on her heels and rushed onward.

Up ahead, there was a lone man on the street near a Globe Oil gas station still standing, pushing a shopping cart full of propane tanks.

"Get off the street!" Connor called to him.

The stranger turned, and his eyes grew big at what he saw coming his way. "Sweet Mother Mary! Hey, follow me!" He pointed to the gas station. "In there! It's safe in there!" Leaving his shopping cart, the man vaulted over the concrete barrier separating the station from the street and hurried inside the building.

Connor and Bernie exchanged a look, then the latter glanced over his shoulder at Niko and Gen. "We're going with this man!" The two scrambled over the barrier and fled into the gas station's shop.

"Should we trust this guy?" Gen asked Niko, puffing for air.

"I don't think we got a choice now."

They ran to the barrier. Niko put the girl on the other side of it, then jumped over. "Run inside," he told her.

Eve nodded and took off as Gen vaulted over, feeling lunatics on her heels. She whirled around to see three of them reaching the barrier, but before she could raise her M-16, Niko blasted them all in the face with his own. More were coming; too many. The two bolted for the shop.

The sliding doors had been left open for them. Gen dodged inside and Niko came after. Bernie and Connor worked together to push the doors shut. No sooner were they closed, two lunatics crashed into them, growling and banging.

"Oh, fuck," Niko swore, realizing their mistake too late. "We're trapped. If they get through those doors..."

"Those doors ain't glass. They're polycarbonate," the stranger said. He was a gaunt man with a haggard face, a light growth of beard, and faded blue eyes. He was perched on the check-out counter, puffing on a cigarette. "Tough shit. They ain't gettin' through that."

"They're unsually strong," Niko pointed out. "And they have all the time in the world to get through it."

The stranger took the cigarette from his mouth, flicked ashes on the floor, and smiled at Niko in a way that made him wonder about the man's sanity; he was acting far too casual for the dire situation. Then the man asked, "You folks wanna see a neat trick?"

Well, now Niko was certain the guy was off his trolley. "_What_? No, I would like to know how the hell we are going to get out of here alive."

The man laughed. "Trust me, mister. You'll want to see this."

He stuck his cigarette between his teeth and slipped off the check-out counter. "There should be one here somewhere..." the man spoke, mostly to himself as he bent down to poke around the shelves under the counter. "Ah, here we go." He straightened up with a fire extinguisher in his hands, grinning through his cigarette. He took the firefighting tool over to the doors.

After a brief exchange of confused looks, the others surrounded him to see what he was going to do. More lunatics had gathered at the doors by now, pounding and clawing at them. The man knelt down and moved them apart.

"Are you insane!?" Niko shouted at him. "Close the-"

"I'm only openin' it a little. These freaks have a one-track mind. They're too hell-bent on us to figure out how to open the doors; they're just gonna keep bangin' on 'em. So just cool off," he said. "Two of you come over here, one at each door."

Bernie and Connor moved forward as the man worked the fire extinguisher's horn through the crack in the doors, aiming it up. "Okay, push the doors closed," the man said. "Not too hard, just enough to keep the horn in place."

They worked the doors closed until the man told them to stop, then he looked up at everyone, grinning through nicotine-stained teeth and a haze of cigarette smoke. "Now watch and be amazed."

The stranger squeezed the fire extinguisher's trigger and kept it squeezed as the horn emitted a continuous thick, white fog. The lunatics who were hit full on with it screamed and backed away. And then they stilled, stood like statues. Others bumped into them, and when they fell over, they were still in the same posture they had been when they were standing, as if they were caught in some suspended animation.

"Fuck me," Niko breathed, staring at the spectacle with unmasked shock. "I don't believe it."

"Oh, my God," Gen gasped. "It..._froze_ them."

The stranger looked at her, still grinning. "You're close to the mark. It's the cold; for whatever reason, they don't like it. It don't actually freeze 'em, and it don't hurt 'em enough to kill 'em, but it'll leave 'em paralyzed for a while. An hour tops."

"I'm looking forward to winter," Niko said.

Bernie nodded in agreement. "Me too. Wow, this is amazing!"

"No, that's the thing," the man said. "It's gotta be extreme cold or it don't work. The temperature of a fire extinguisher's discharge is around negative hundred and ten fahrenheit, maybe colder. So far, it's the only thing that has this effect."

"How did you find out about this?" Niko asked.

The man's grin was gone. "Long story, and stories can wait. We should focus on our problem at the moment. How many of those freaks were after you?"

"We didn't count," Gen admitted. "It looked like there were around thirty of them."

The stranger nodded. "Right. You folks just sit back and relax for now. I got this covered. Should be able to take out a good number of 'em before the extinguisher runs out." His grin came back. "You folks can have the leftovers."

* * *

Bernie and Gen stood guard while Connor watched the stranger continue his bizarre fire extinguisher assault on the lunatics. A number of them were laying in a paralyzed heap just outside the doors, but there were plenty left, still pounding against the doors or trying to elbow their way forward. The stranger had been at it for twenty minutes, and he informed them that the extinguisher was still half full by the feel of its weight; it was likely he would be able to take them all out with it.

Tired of standing around doing nothing, Niko looked through the shop for Eve, finding her huddled up against the wall near the counter with her knees hugged up to her chest.

She spared him a distasteful glance. "Go away."

Maybe Bernie had been right to be sarcastic about his having a way with females. He had a knack for pissing off the ones in his company, and apparently by doing nothing more than existing.

Niko sat before Eve, leaning his back against the counter. He noticed she had taken his jacket off. It lay in a heap beside her. "Aren't you cold?"

"Maybe, maybe not," she replied with an insolent tone.

He couldn't help but smile. That was something he said often; it seemed he was rubbing off on her. "That's why I gave you my jacket."

"I can't wear it."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

Eve curled up tighter, turning her face away. "I...I wet myself when I got scared." She started crying again. "I think it got on your jacket. I'm sorry."

Niko scooted closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. It's nothing to cry over."

She smacked his hand off. "I'm mad, too!"

"I can see that. Why?" he asked.

"Because you lied."

"I didn't lie, Eve."

"Yes, you did, and you're lying even now; lying about not lying!" she shouted at him. "Why do you have to lie all the time?"

Niko studied her for a moment, then asked, "You want me to tell you the truth?"

"Duh!"

"You shouldn't have looked. If you hadn't, you would not have gotten scared."

"See? Was that so hard?"

"But you cannot be blamed for having a natural reaction to what you saw, and I'm sorry you had to see it."

"Even if someone had come with me, I still would've looked," Eve confessed.

His brow bent. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to be scared. I want to be brave like you, like Gen. But I'm not," she said with disgust. "I'm just a stupid, scared little girl who pees in her pants."

"You are not stupid. And it's good to be scared, little one. You can't be brave if you are not scared."

She made a confused face. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Bravery is not fearlessness. It's facing what you're afraid of in spite of being afraid of it. It's stupid to not fear anything."

"Oh," Eve said. "Are you afraid?"

Niko never hesitated with his answer. "I'm terrified."

Eve studied his face for a moment. "It's hard to tell; you don't look terrified. Are you scared of the crazy people?"

"A little. Mostly I'm afraid I will never find my family, or that they may already be dead or have turned into lunatics."

"I think they're okay."

"Yeah?"

"Uh huh. If they're like you, I bet they're kicking crazy people's butts! I wish I knew how to use a gun like you guys. I could help."

"No, you don't want that."

She cocked her head. "Why not?

"It's...not easy hurting people. You hurt yourself, too. You know what a conscience is?"

"It's a voice inside you, that tells you what's right and what's wrong."

"Hurting people hurts your conscience. Sometimes to the point where your conscience can't tell right from wrong anymore."

Eve frowned. "That sounds bad."

"It's very bad."

"All right, folks," the stranger announced. "The kids have been put to bed. Time for the grown-ups to go out and play."

Niko rose to his feet, turning toward the doors, and sure enough, most of the lunatics that had been crowded there were now laying corpse-still on the ground. The rest were standing frozen. He hadn't even realized the banging had stopped.

"I can't believe something this simple can stop these lunatics," Gen said. "We have got to get this news out to everyone and quick. It'll save lives."

"Or it will create more chaos," Niko said.

"How so?"

"This is another defense against the lunatics, and people will brave the streets for it, they will kill each other for it as they would kill for guns or anything else that may help them survive."

"How is that any different from now?" Gen asked.

"How many people have we seen looting since we left that hospital?"

"None."

"And what do you think will happen once they all find out there's another way to deal with these lunatics? They will start looting again. Bring them all together and they will fight and tear each other apart for what they need."

"So, what, they're all just better off not knowing?" she replied, angrily. "Jesus Christ, Niko! There may be someone out there who could figure out how to use this on a larger scale, and you would keep it a secret?"

"That's not what I'm saying. We tell a few people, if we come across any, and let those few spread the word. This needs a gradual approach. If only a few people know at a time, then only a few people will be out looting. Not only will that avoid mass murder, it won't attract lunatics as a larger group of people would. They'll have a better chance on the streets."

The stranger nodded, puffing on his tenth cigarette in the last thirty minutes. "The man makes a good point. I considered findin' a way to make the grand announcement to everyone myself, then I thought that same thing. If too many folks know at once, they'll all go nuts tryin' to find fire extinguishers. No point givin' people a life savin' gift if they're all gonna kill each other over it. Best to do it gradual, like he said."

"I guess," Gen gave. "Just as long as people know about it, that's all I care about."

"Well, we best get movin' before the 'kids' get up," the man said. "You folks need a place to stay for the night? Mi casa es su casa. Plenty of room and it's comfortable livin' for this shitty situation." His face grew grim. "And...well, I know things. Things you folks need to know, about the freaks and what's goin' on."

"Um...give us a moment to confer," Gen said.

The man nodded. "Do what you gotta do."

The group huddled together away from the stranger, speaking in low tones.

"What do you think?" she asked them.

Bernie shrugged. "He seems like an okay guy."

"And he says he has information," Connor said. "It might be a good idea to listen to what he has to tell us."

Gen nodded. "I agree. If he knows what's going on, what's _really_ going on, this is likely the only chance we're going to get to find out." She glanced at Niko, raising a brow. "You're quiet. No opinion on this?"

"I don't know how I feel about it. This guy kind of gave me the creeps before, but he showed us this thing with the fire extinguisher...like I said, I don't know. Just don't let your guard down around him. Any of you."

"So, we are going with him, then?" Bernie asked.

Gen shrugged. "I guess we are."


	11. Chapter 11: Screw The Universe

**Chapter Eleven: Screw The Universe**

* * *

**"W**hat should we do with them?" Bernie asked, waving a hand at the pile of paralyzed lunatics.

"Leave them," Niko suggested. "They ain't a threat to us right now. And killing them will make too much noise. I really don't think we want more of them showing up."

Gen nodded. "I agree."

"Well, I don't," Connor said. "Just leaving them here is stupid. You heard what the stranger said, the paralysis effect only lasts up to an hour. When they wake up or whatever, they'll likely stay in the area. They'll probably still be at this damn gas station. We're going to end up having to kill them anyway, so we might as well get it done now while it's easier to do it."

"Funny. I don't remember ever asking for your opinion," Niko said.

"That's because you didn't," Connor shot back and pointed a finger at Bernie. "_He_ did."

"Don't thrust me into the middle of your spat. I'm innocent!" Bernie said.

"Look, all I'm saying is..."

While the adults continued to argue about what to do with the paralyzed lunatics, Eve studied one of them. The man stood corpse-still just outside the front doors of the gas station shop, his hands caught midway into making fists. His veiny face was frozen in a snarl, showing off teeth that were turning black and forming into points.

She wrinkled her nose in disgust, but reached out a hand, a little hesitant. She touched his arm. The flesh was hard and cold. "Like dead people's skin," she muttered to herself. But she knew the man wasn't dead; none of them were. But she _wished_ they were; she wished all of them were dead, but most of all, she wished the woman was dead, the strange one who haunted her dreams.

Eve put her hands on the lunatic's stomach and shoved. He fell over backwards, his head cracking on the concrete. Blood began to seep out around it, dark red with swirls of black.

Drawn by the sound, Gen turned to her. "Eve, don't mess with them."

"But I'm trying to be brave," the girl explained. "Niko said being brave means facing scary things. The crazy people are scary."

Gen strode over and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's good that you want to be brave, but there are times when it's right to be brave and times when it's wrong, when it's smarter to run away. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yeah, I should run away from them when they can move. I'm not that stupid, you know," Eve said with a roll of her eyes.

Gen chuckled. "No, you're certainly not stupid." She put an arm around the girl's shoulders and turned to the others.

"You don't have to kill them with guns," Connor was saying. "I know one of you has a knife; you killed one of Cole's guys with it. So, why not just stab them all in the head?"

"Have you ever tried to stab someone in the head?" Niko replied. "It ain't easy."

"Well, it sounds like_ you've_ done it before_," _Connor said with a disdainful tone. "I'm sure the big, strong _Alpha Male_ will have no trouble performing the task again."

Niko narrowed his eyes at the man, quite fed up with his shit. But before he could make an ill-tempered reply that would put him in his place, Gen stepped in.

"Look, if it'll keep World War Three from being waged, let's just do it," she said. "It'll at least shut him up about it."

"_No_," Niko persisted. "It will take fucking forever, and the longer we are exposed out here, the more likely we will have to face more of those freaks. We are leaving, whether he likes it or not."

Gen nodded and looked over at Connor. "You heard the man."

"What, does he speak for _everyone_ now? We haven't heard what Bernie or this new guy has to say."

"He speaks sense, Connor," Gen said. "And we listen to that."

He scoffed. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised _you'd_ take his side. He's the Alpha Male of this little pack and you're just the Alpha Female; you both think you can boss everyone around. And you don't give a fuck about anyone else's opinion."

"No," said Niko. "We just don't give a fuck about _yours_. Let's go. If he wants the freaks dead, he can kill them his fucking self."

Without further ado, the brunt of the group started up Feldspar Street, the stranger leading them, pushing his shopping cart full of propane tanks ahead of him. It bounced along the road, making far too much noise for anyone's comfort.

Connor stayed behind a moment, then reluctantly followed, keeping in the rear and sulking.

"What do you need all this propane for?" Niko asked the stranger.

"I got a generator," he answered. "Runs on this stuff. Just ran out of it today and I decided since I was goin' out, I might as well take as much as I can haul. I don't live too far from that gas station, but I don't wanna be out on the street anymore than I have to."

"A generator," Gen sighed wistfully. "Um...is it possible to get a hot shower at your place, too?"

"Certainly," the man replied. "I got one of those electric water heaters. I'll have to turn most of the shit off in the house to use it, though. Don't wanna blow the gen; it can't take too much."

"Well, in that case, nevermind. I don't want to trouble you or anything."

"Nonsense," the man said. "My pop always taught me that women should be treated like queens. You'll have your hot shower, ma'am."

"That's really kind of you," Gen said, smiling.

Despite the noise from the man's cart, they made it to his home without event. It was a small, two-story place in Little Italy, between a resturant and a rug shop. It had likely been some kind of commercial endeavor in the past before the man had converted it into his home.

The stranger pushed his cart of propane tanks into the alleyway behind his house. The generator sat just off to the side of the back door. Connor lent the man a hand with unloading the tanks. The generator ran on two of them, the stranger explained while he took out the used up ones and hooked up the new, and he had been running on those since he'd bought the generator.

"Only had to use it a few years ago during those rolling blackouts we had in the summer and when that odd hurricane blew through last year," he said, closing the lid to the generator's protective cover and giving it a pat. "But ol' Reliable Rita here is gettin' a real work-out now."

He put the extra propane tanks in a nearby shed, then led them all up to the front porch. The stranger pulled the door open, and stepped inside. "You'll have to excuse the mess."

Once everyone was gathered in the living room, they glanced around, curiously. The man hadn't been kidding about the mess. Every soild surface was covered with electronic equipment and gadgets, computers and laptops, dirty dishes and laundry, magazines and books, loose papers that had been written on, and bright sticky notes stuck to things, written with memos and reminders.

"Um...nice place?" Gen tried.

The stranger laughed. "I never was good at cleanin' up after myself. The wife did that for me before she passed away."

"Oh. I'm sorry about your wife," Gen replied. "If you want, I could help straighten up. I mean, it's the least I can do since you're letting us stay here."

"Now you keep your sanitizin' intentions to yourself," he said with a good-hearted tone. "It's a mess, but I know where everything is."

"Just thought I'd put the offer out there. If you need anything, I'm glad to help."

"It's good of you to offer. I'll get that water heater goin' for you. Should be enough hot water for all the rest of you, too, if you want to get cleaned up," the man said. "It'll take about two hours, so try to make yourselves at home around the mess. Oh, and I'm Travis, by the way. Travis Wilkins."

When the rest of the introductions and nice-to-meet-yous were out of the way, Travis disappeared down a hallway, leaving the group alone.

Eve tugged on Gen's sleeve, pulling her down to whisper in her ear. "Can I take a bath first? I...wet myself."

"Oh. Of course. Uh...you're going to need some new clothes, too."

The girl stared down at her feet. "I'm sorry."

Gen rubbed a hand against her back. "There's nothing to be sorry about, sweet girl. We'll get you cleaned up and get you into some nice warm clothes, okay?"

Eve nodded. "Okay."

Gen turned to the others. "Guys, looks like I'm going to have to go back out again. I need to pick up a few emergency items for Eve. Any volunteers to keep me company?"

"Give me a gun and I'll go," Connor offered.

"No," Niko said without hesitation.

Connor frowned. "Here we go again. I think she can decide that for herself."

"I'm sure she can. I don't care. I don't want you alone with her, least of all armed with a fucking gun."

"For fuck's sake, man! How the hell can I earn anyone's trust if you won't let me do anything to earn it? You know, I'm starting to think that's what you're _really_ worried about, that I _can_ be trusted if given the chance. After all, if I can be trusted, there's a chance I can move in on the Alpha Male's territory."

Niko was confused. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know what the hell I'm talking about. But nice acting job; I'm sure she bought it."

Then it became clear what he was suggesting. And it boiled Niko's blood to be accused of treating a woman like a thing to be owned, as his own father had treated his mother. Connor couldn't know what he was really taking offense to, but Niko didn't care. "_Fuck you._ She is a person, not anyone's fucking property!"

Connor laughed. "Yeah, and you've proved by making her own decisions for her that she definitely isn't your property."

Niko walked away from it, bursting through the front door. He walked away, because if he had stayed there a second longer, he would've killed the son of a bitch.

Gen gave Connor a dark look. "If this is how you try to earn trust, you might want to use a different approach. You're only earning enemies this way. And I can fairly say there's one among us you definitely don't want as an enemy."

Connor scoffed. "It doesn't matter what I try to do, you've all already decided I can't be trusted. I don't know why you even bothered to let me come along in the first place."

"There was at least one of us who didn't have the heart to leave you to the lunatics." She turned and opened the front door. "Bernie, keep an eye on Eve for us."

"Of course. Be careful."

* * *

Gen found him pacing out on the street, gripping his assault rifle so hard she wondered if it was going to crumble to pieces in his hands. The fury came off him in heated waves, and she could almost feel it as if it were a tangible force. Only twice had she seen him this angry; on the roof of a hotel in Star Junction when Eve had seized and in Cole's office when he almost killed the man. She found it odd that Connor's slight offense would make him boil up like this. He must've hit some nerve no one but Niko knew about.

He finally noticed her standing there on the sidewalk. "It's about fucking time. Did you get lost?"

For once, Gen had no smartass retort for him. "Sorry."

They started up the street, Gen struggling to keep his pace; his stride was as quick as his temper.

"Um...thanks for defending me back there," she said.

"That had nothing to do with you," he replied, coldly.

"...Oh."

Niko heard something in the simple word. Injury? Offense? Disappointment? He couldn't be certain, and couldn't find it in himself to care at the moment, either way. He was almost as angry with her as he was with Connor and didn't understand why. It was absurd, considering the woman hadn't done anything deserving of his anger for a change, but he couldn't seem to help its existance, either.

"I remember not too long at that strip club," Gen said. "When I was angry at Cole, someone gave me some good advice. He said 'You're only giving him what he wants'. Connor wants to get under your skin, he wants to push you. Maybe it's all part of his 'grand scheme', or...maybe he's just scared of you."

"He's fucking stupid. If he was scared, he would stay the fuck away from me if he knew what was good for him."

"This may be the only way he knows how to handle it. He's in a vulnerable situation, he's unarmed and surrounded by armed people who don't trust him and probably never will. The only defense he has is his words, and they're his only weapon, too."

"Guns do more damage than words. I'm tempted to prove it to him."

"Do they? Yet you, the man with the gun, are out here, infuriated and wishing you had blown his head off. And him, the man with the words, is in that house, probably having a good laugh at your expense. Connor knows how to use his words. That one comment alone was enough to tick you off and it made you reveal a weakness; whatever that 'territory' thing was about. Possibly two weaknesses, the other being you walking away from it; he knows you won't or don't want to resort to violence."

"If he keeps this shit up, I will. I promise you."

"He's not worth you being that person you don't want to be. If words are his only weapon and defense, ignore him and he's powerless."

Niko said nothing, but he did, however, consider what she'd said.

There was a long strip of shops not too far from the stranger's home. A few had been caved in from a nearby skyscraper's falling debris, but the rest were still intact, had only suffered some minor damage. When Gen looked up at the taller building, she was astonished to see the twisted and burnt tail end of a fighter jet sticking out of the side of it.

Fortunately, one of the slightly damaged buildings was called _Frankie's Little Apparel Shop_. Gen made for it, ducking through a broken window. The interior was a disaster area. Looters had been at it, as there were forgotten clothes strewn about and a few shelves and racks had been overturned. Most of the stuff from the adult sections had been taken, but the kid's was hardly touched.

While Niko stood guard, Gen stepped behind the check-out desk, grabbed a brown shopping bag and shook it out.

She'd forgotten to check Eve's size before she had left, so it was to be a guessing game. She grabbed what looked comfortable and easy to move around in, long-sleeves and short-sleeves, jeans and cargo pants, and a jacket with a hood to keep her warm, and dry if it rained. Gen stuffed a good many pairs of socks and underwear into her bag, too; one could never have too many socks and underwear, as her father had once told her, quoting her mother.

With an overflowing bag, Gen started for the exit, but something sparkly hanging from a hook on the side of a shelf gave her pause. It was a sterling silver horseshoe charm on a silver chain. She thought Eve might like that, so she dropped it into her bag.

The two headed back to Travis's home in silence, until they got to the front steps.

It seemed some of Niko's fury had waned with the passage of time, for he spared her a glance and said, "You're welcome."

Gen smiled, and they went inside.

Bernie and Connor were sitting on the couch, turning their heads around at the sound of the door opening. The homeowner was standing at the kitchen island, lighting oil lamps since he was unable to use too much electricity at the moment. He looked up momentarily. "Did you folks have any trouble?"

"No," answered Niko.

Gen went to Eve where she was sitting in an arm chair among some dirty laundry. She knelt down with the bag in front of her and Eve looked down into it, curious.

"Wow, that's a lot of stuff," the girl observed.

"Yeah, I went a little overboard," Gen replied with a smile. "Just wanted to make sure you have everything you need." She sifted through the bag. "I got you a jacket and you've got a choice between long-sleeve and short-sleeve shirts. Oh, and I found..." Her fingers snagged the chain and she lifted the necklace out, dangling it in front of Eve. "This isn't a necessary item, but I just thought you might like it."

Eve smiled happily, holding the horseshoe charm in her palm. "I love it! It's pretty and it reminds me of Lucky Peanut Butter."

Gen made a weird face. "Lucky Peanut Butter?"

"Yeah, my daddy used to take me to grandpa's farm to ride her. She's a horse. I got to name her, too. She ate my peanut butter sandwich right out of my hand one time, so that's why part of her name is Peanut Butter. The mean people who owned her before wanted to kill her because she had a bad leg and couldn't race anymore, but grandpa saved her, so she's lucky. Lucky Peanut Butter!"

"Cute. I like that."

Eve gave her a curious look. "I love horses. How did you know?"

"I didn't," Gen admitted, unclasping the chain. She reached around the girl's neck and hooked it in place. "Horseshoes are said to be good luck, and some even believe it protects against evil. The opening in the horseshoe must always face up, so-"

"Your luck doesn't run out." Eve finished for her. "Yep, my grandpa told me that. You should've gotten one, too. Then you would have good luck and protection from evil."

"I already have a good luck charm."

"You do?"

Gen smiled. "You."

Eve grinned and hugged her. "Thank you. For the clothes and the necklace, and for saying that."

"I hate to break up this tender moment," Travis said, bringing a lit lantern over to the coffee table. "But since you're waitin' for the water to heat up, I think we should use this time to discuss a few things."

Gen straightened up and took a seat beside Eve in the chair. The girl curled up to her, laying her head on her shoulder, and Gen put an arm around her. "You mentioned knowing things about the lunatics and what's going on."

The man inclined his head. "Right." He flopped into a recliner and his gaze went right to Niko, where he was seated beside Bernie on the couch and as far away from Connor as he could manage. "You asked me earlier at that gas station how I knew about the freaks' dislike of the cold. There was a man I'd gotten in contact with over my ham radio. Started talkin' to him just after the military retreated. He's the one who told me about it."

"How did he know?"

"This guy, he's a pathologist, worked over in Broker in a hospital. He holed himself up there with a few patients and some other doctors. One day, this man and woman came runnin' up to the hospital doors, bangin' on 'em and beggin' to be let in. They were bein' chased by three of them freaks and they didn't have any weapons. Neither did anyone in the hospital, but my buddy said they opened the doors for 'em all the same. Tried to get 'em shut before the freaks got there, but they weren't quick enough. The freaks got inside, started tearin' apart everyone. The pathologist grabbed at whatever he could get his hands on-"

"A fire extinguisher," Bernie guessed.

Travis nodded. "Started sprayin' the freaks with it and they all go still. He was surprised it even worked, had no idea what to make of it, so he started doin' a few tests. He killed all the freaks but one while they were still paralyzed, stabbed 'em in the head, bashed their brains in. Took the live freak down to the morgue and waited till it was movin' around again, then put it in the corpse freezer - the hospital was runnin' off its generator still. He left the freak in there for a few hours. Damn thing was screamin' for a while, he said. When he checked on it, the fucker was stiff as a corpse, frozen. He thought it was good as dead, but as soon as it thawed, he checked and it was still drawin' a healthy pulse. It wasn't movin', though. Didn't move for a little over an hour. He kept testin' his theory, to make sure. Everytime the freak started' movin' again, he stuck it in the freezer, and everytime he did, it went paralyzed for a while. So, he used this paralysis to his advantage and started tryin' to figure out what's wrong with it and if anything can be done 'bout it. And this is where shit gets really fuckin' bizarre."

"Right, because nothing has been bizarre so far," Niko said.

Travis laughed. "Mister, this is gonna blow your fuckin' mind. So, he cuts open this freak's head first and what he finds inside is somethin' he's never seen before in his life. The brain is covered with some kind of thick, black layer. Tries to cut through it, but that wasn't easy. The tissue - if you can call it that - was real hard, he said. Had to use the bone saw to get through it, and when he finally got inside the brain, he again found somethin' he's never seen before in his life. Somethin' a little bit bigger than an earthworm, black as that layer over the brain. He took it out and trapped the thing in a petri dish and put it under a microscope for a closer look. He still had no idea what the hell it was, said there's nothin' like it, not in nature. Even though it seems to act like a parasite, there's nothin' parasitic about the way it looks; it looks nothin' like any of the parasites we know of. This thing has red eyes, a mouth, razor-like teeth, dozens of appendages, suckers and spines, and screeches and hisses like a pissed off cat, my friend says. Thing sounds like a real peach.

"And that's not even the strangest bit. Whatever this thing is, it can split apart, multiply. My friend found this out when he put the thing back into the brain and implanted one of those mini microscopes they're using nowadays to look at cells and diagnose illnesses. Wanted to see how it would behave. He saw the thing split into countless versions of itself, and those little bastards went to work, and not just in the brain. He opened the guy's chest up, implanted a few more of those microscopes, and the little bastards were everywhere."

"Went to work? What were they doing to the body?" Gen asked.

Travis shook his head, grimly. "Changing shit, _everything_, on a cellular level; reconstructin' the host. He thinks they're doin' it to fit their own needs, building the body into something they can use as well as live in. To me, these things kinda sound like a cross between parasites and organic nanobots, but I also read a lot of science stuff, includin' science fiction."

For the longest time, no one said a thing, absorbing the information, struggling to understand it. Struggling to believe it.

"That would explain why they've all physically and mentally changed," Gen said at last.

"My pathologist friend says it's obvious the parasite starts by makin' sure the brain and heart are protected first. He found the heart just like the brain, black and hard. If this thing has the intelligence to reconstruct cells and shit, it has the intelligence to know the brain can't survive without the heart and vice versa. It made 'em both tougher to damage. Gotta keep the body alive or it's useless." The man shrugged. "Anyway, that's all my friend found out, or if he found out more, I never got a chance to know. Lost contact with him three days ago. He might be dead."

"What about blood?" Gen asked. "Any idea why this thing wants its host to feed on blood?"

Travis shrugged again. "No idea. This thing has a weird, parasitic nature, so like fleas and bats and other bloodsuckers, they might need the protein in the blood. But then again, this thing ain't exactly like other organisms."

"If it needs the protein in blood," Niko said. "Why not take it from the host? Something this small can't drain an entire body of its blood."

"Why eat your own food when you can eat somebody else's? Like I said, it's got a parasitic nature. And it may have formed some kind of bond with the host body or doesn't want to take the risk of feedin' on it. Hell, it may even need the blood inside the host for somethin' else, for all we know."

"Could there be a way to fix this?" Gen asked. "Help the people infected with these things?"

"No. The change is too extreme to be undone. Might be able to remove the parasite, but the host probably won't live long without it."

Gen nodded, sadly. So, it was official. They couldn't be saved as she had hoped; the only thing that would free those people was death. "I'm going to assume the parasite can't survive without the host, either."

He shrugged. "Seems about right. If it has nothin' to live inside, it can't live."

Connor asked, "So, no one knows where this thing came from? I mean, if your doctor buddy said there's nothing like it in nature, could it have been man-made or something?"

Travis laughed. "No, we had nothin' to do with it, I'm certain of that. We're not that advanced enough to come up a life form that can totally revamp other life forms. This came from a galaxy far, far away. Or, hell, it may have come from our own galactic backyard."

Niko laughed, because he didn't know how else to react. "You're suggesting these things are..._aliens_?" He laughed hard. "Sure, why the fuck not."

Travis grinned as he stood from his recliner. "Shit falls from space all the time. Anything this small could've ridden in on a meteorite or somethin'. But since we know the parasite is connected to the woman, they must've ridden in on somethin' else a long time ago. I'm thinkin' some kind of spacecraft."

"How the hell can you know that?"

"I can't, not for certain, but I can show you somethin' that might support the theory," Travis said, stepping over to the dining room table and grabbing a laptop. He sat in his recliner, lifted the screen, and started the machine up. "I was able to do a little research before the internet collapsed. Saved some of the pictures to my computer."

"It collapsed!?" Connor replied, astonished. "The _internet_? Damn. Like cockroaches, I thought it was going to outlast us."

"Can't outlast us," Travis said. "All the internet's data will remain on the servers forever, but without people to supply the servers with power..." He let him fill in the blanks.

Connor looked mournful. "There goes all that free porn."

That got a giggle out of Bernie and a smile from Travis. It also made Eve put an awkward question to Gen.

"What's porn?"

"Uh..." Gen hesitated.

Connor burst out laughing, until a blistering look from Gen settled him. "My bad."

"It's not important," the woman told Eve. "Just grown-up stuff."

Eve shrugged on the subject and did not pursue it.

_Thank God,_ Gen thought.

"All right," the stranger said. "I came across one of those conspiracy websites a while back - you know, the ones where people post their theories and pictures of fake UFO sightings to stir up more conspiracies. And I was damned surprised by what I found. Pictures posted a day after the 'outbreak'." He sat the laptop on the coffee table and angled it so everyone could see the screen. "Look familiar?"

Displayed was a close-up picture of a woman, trapped inside a block of ice. And it wasn't just any woman. It was the strange one they had all seen in Star Junction just days ago.

Eve gasped. "It's just like in my dream!"

Gen gave her a startled look. "Are you sure?"

The girl nodded vigorously. "I told you about it, remember? She was inside some kind of metal thing, and it was inside ice. Just like the picture!"

Gen remembered. "_Oh, my God_." She shot from the chair and started pacing the living room, shaking her head, her mind racing and she struggled to gather the thoughts. "How could she dream about this? She couldn't have known about it. _How_?" Gen looked around at everyone, hoping someone would provide an answer.

Connor gave her a guess. "The Gathering. When the woman communicated with the other Reds, maybe she passed along more than just her voice."

"But why her," Gen asked. "And not the rest of us?"

Connor shrugged. "It might not be just her. The Gathering affected the children differently than it affected us adults. All the kids at the club had seizures, but none of the adults did. Maybe Eve is seeing the woman's memories or something. I know it sounds crazy, but...well, everything sounds crazy nowadays. Crazy, but most of it ends up being true."

"If it was memories," said Niko, his feud with the man momentarily forgotten. "I would think Eve would be seeing them through the woman's eyes, not through her own."

"Yeah, but maybe the kid's brain switched things around...I don't know."

"We should've listened to her," Gen said. "We should've paid more attention to those dreams."

"We couldn't have known they meant anything," Niko said. "Children have nightmares; it's not unusual, especially in our situation."

Gen recalled something. She turned to Eve. "You had a nightmare about her before, just after what happened in Star Junction. You said she had...eggs?"

Eve nodded. "Black ones. Rotten. She made people eat them and they got sick. Then they started changing, looking like her."

"Holy crap!" Gen exclaimed. "We've had some answers in front of us all this time!" She started laughing; the whole thing was unbelievable. Then she started pacing again. "Okay. So, it's obvious that dream was about the...parasite. An _alien_ parasite. But I don't get the eggs. Were these parasites inside of them? Was that how these things got released on the world population?" She shook her head. "No, that doesn't make sense."

"Symbolism," Travis put forth. "Dreams are full of 'em. Eggs symbolize rebirth, fertility-"

"She's too young to under symbolism. Besides, if Connor's right, they aren't actually dreams."

"No, they could be residual memories, but like he also mentioned, the girl's mind could've made some of the things up. And never underestimate a child's intelligence. Sometimes they understand things a lot better than us adults do, and sometimes they see things us adults don't."

Bernie nodded in agreement. "And Eve is quite smart for her age."

"The girl's dreams meant somethin', that's obvious." Travis reached to his laptop and brought up a few more pictures on the screen, more pictures of strange women encased in ice. "There's more of those weird ass women - people are callin' 'em Mothers now. There's a lot more of 'em. According to the person who posted these pictures, the photos were taken in some cave or somethin' buried under a crater in Antarctica. There was an article attached to the pictures, talkin' about some Antarctic expedition in the works about six months back. It was funded and overseen by..." The man grinned. "Can anyone take a guess?"

Gen took the plunge. "The Aeronautics and Space Administration?"

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" Travis said. "Unfortunately, the internet pooped out and I didn't get to read the rest of the article. Wish I'd saved that. My guess is these space chicks and their 'flyin' saucer' dropped out of the sky a long time ago, crashed in the South Pole, and time buried them under the ice. They stayed frozen, or paralyzed, or since they were inside metal things that could be pods from their ship, they might have been in some kind of induced suspended animation until our guys woke 'em up. These alien broads released this pestilence on us, that's obvious. But the how don't matter. It's the why we should be worried about."

"And I assume you have a theory?" Niko asked.

"I'm thinkin' these little parasitic bastards are their spawn, but they need somethin' to grow inside; they need a body to grow up in, to mold into. Could be these aliens are survivors of a dead planet; somethin' might have happened there that left 'em all unable to procreate. Could've extracted their parasite _eggs_ and contained them for future plantin' in a viable host. Or, hell, maybe this is how they _evolved_ to procreate. And it's pretty much a win-win situation for them. They can purge our population, and at the same time, increase their own. It's almost like biological warfare, but on an entirely new level."

"One that is entirely fucked up," Niko remarked.

"No argument there. But you gotta admit, it's fuckin' effective as hell."

"So," Gen said. "If I have this right, you think these parasites are actually baby aliens that are somehow intelligent enough to reconstruct a human body, cell by cell, into their perfect habitat? I don't know whether to believe you or think you mad as a hatter."

Travis laughed, taking no offense. "We're talkin' about somethin' from space, sweetheart. It's full of mysteries. There's probably an amoeba out there somewhere that would make these things look retarded."

"There are more of these 'Mothers'," Bernie said. "Do you know how many?"

Travis shook his head. "But there have to be a lot for the whole world to have gone to shit. There's two here in the city, I know that much."

"How?"

"My pathologist friend told me. You think Algonquin's bad? You should see how it is in Broker. He said most of the freaks over there are unlike the ones I told him about here. Most of 'em are a helluva lot more intelligent, more...advanced. They don't rave and go nuts as much and they talk; they speak that weird gutteral language we all heard in our heads not too long ago and they know our language somehow. To make things worse, they're startin' to make some people go mad. Manipulatin' minds with their own, makin' people see shit that ain't really there. Mostly only affects weak-minded individuals, he said. But since they're still growin', that's like to change."

None of that sat well with Niko. "This was the last fucking thing I needed to hear." He had been hoping that things in Broker were not as bad as they were in Algonquin. Now he wondered why he'd even bothered hoping at all. Things seemed to keep going forever and ever into a downward spiral, and the more it did, the further hope got away from him. "Fuck the universe."

Travis rose a brow. "Seems like the universe is fuckin' us at the moment."

"Up the ass," Niko agreed.

Gen asked, "Anything else we should know?"

"Only this," the man said. "The military never had a chance. They didn't abandon us or sacrifice us as some people think. They retreated, true enough, but they retreated 'cause the fight was utterly lost. My pathologist friend heard a story from a survivor who witnessed the war that unfolded. He claimed to see some of the more advanced freaks takin' over tanks, blastin' up shit, and he saw one of those Mothers, standin' on a roof of some buildin', sendin' fighter jets out to sea. Two or three at a time. With just her mind. The ones that didn't find a watery grave were turnin' on each other, blowin' each other out of the sky."

"_No_," Niko insisted. A man could only take so much bad news and unbelievable crap at once, and he couldn't help putting up a defense against the onslaught. Denial. "He has to be making this shit up."

"The freaks in Broker fuckin' with people's minds is real enough. If the babies are capable of that, the Mothers are capable of more. It's possible."

"If they're able to do all this damage, why did they allow the army to put up those concrete walls? Blow up the bridges?" Connor asked. "They're trapped here, just like we are."

"Hell if I know. Maybe the military split their forces, had one force distract the lunatics long enough for the other to get the walls in place, and the airforce would've been keepin' the Mothers preoccupied. Bridges would've been easy enough. Only need one jet to drop a bomb or a small troop to plant explosives. Of course, the walls and bridges may not even matter. It might not be trappin' the freaks and their mommies, just us. The Mothers could be 'nesting', waitin' until their babies are good and strong before they start whatever else they have planned. They probably let the walls happen and bridges go 'cause it trapped the one thing we know they need. Us - our blood. Kept 'em from havin' to work hard to gather a food supply."

"Yeah, but by using most of us as hosts, they've drained their food supply," Gen said. "By a lot."

Niko almost loved her for pointing that out, because it meant hope. It meant, "They are going to starve."

"I'm thinkin' blood is just their version of breast milk or baby formula," Travis said, raining shit all over his parade. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I ain't seen that woman out there feedin' on anyone. And I haven't heard from anyone who has. Those two might be gettin' their nutrition else where, or they might be able to survive without it. The blood could be just for the babies; they feed on it for a while until they grow out of it, or go on 'solids', if you will."

Niko frowned at him. "I'm _really_ starting to hate you."

Travis smiled. "Sorry, but I think we should be lookin' at all possibilities here. Besides, these things are too smart to do somethin' as stupid as 'breed' too much to the point where there's not enough food to go around. That's more like somethin' humans would do."

"Would you know of a possible way into Broker?" Gen asked, changing the subject, because the subject was making everyone depressed if the looks around the room were any indication.

"Sorry, can't help you there."

"How about a ladder?" Connor asked. "You got a twenty-foot ladder you can part with? And an inflatable raft...with a motor? Or paddles?"

"No, but there's one of them outdoorsy type stores on the bottom floor of Pier 45. Might try lookin' there. Also, there was a chopper sittin' out there on the Helitours dock, last time I was over there, but that was about four days ago and some other people were lookin' at it. If you're desperate enough, I guess you could try pilotin' it, if it's still there. I doubt that 'Mother' will mess with you, since you're not a threat. There was a lot of them freaks hangin' out around that area, too, so watch yourselves if you decide to head that way. Can I ask why you're tryin' to get into Broker, the worst part of the city at this point?"

"Family reunion," Gen said.

"Ah." He looked at Niko. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it's yours. Of all the hopeless looks I'm seein' here, yours is more pronounced."

"Yes."

"There's always hope," Bernie said, helpfully.

"I suppose there is," Travis said. "There's luck and prayer, too. The girl's got her horseshoe, so you're at least carryin' around some luck with you. And well, I was never the religious type, but I'll be prayin' for you, for whatever good it'll do."

Niko had never been certain about prayer, but at this point, he would take anything he could get.


	12. Chapter 12: Sacrifice

**Chapter Twelve: Sacrifice**

* * *

**H**e sat on the back porch steps, listening to the hum of the generator and the sounds of Bernie, Connor and Eve's combined laughter as they sat at the dining room table, playing cards to pass the time. Travis clattered about in the kitchen as he cooked dinner for them all on his electric range and Gen was still off having her shower.

Niko had needed the alone time to get himself together. His mind was the cerebral equivalent of a rock concert, overcrowded and loud, and the thoughts only sang songs of fear, anger, and hopelessness. He thought he could police those things, but he wasn't having much success at it.

He was unaware of time as it passed him by, but the sound of the back door opening soon brought him back to awareness. He glanced over a shoulder to see Gen standing there, fresh from her shower. Her hair hung dark and damp around her shoulders and there was a concerned expression on her face.

"Just checking on you," she said. "You okay?"

"Not really."

Gen nodded. "I'll leave you alone." She turned to go back inside.

"No," Niko blurted, drawing her back. "I mean, I don't mind if you stay. I, uh...I could use the distraction."

Without a word, she took a seat beside him on the steps, bringing with her the smell of the soap on her skin and the survival on her clothes. It was as much a comforting combination of scents as it was painful. It reminded him of his mother; she had smelled much the same.

They sat in silence for a time, neither knowing what to say to the other. The generator continued to hum and more laughter spilled out of the house.

Niko blew out a sigh. "How can they be so cheerful after all we have learned?"

"It's how they've decided to cope with it, I imagine," Gen said. "So they don't go insane." She looked at him. "How are you coping?"

"I don't think I am. I'm..." He trailed off, frowning. He had admitted his fear to Eve earlier that day, but for whatever reason, he couldn't admit it to Gen.

It didn't matter. She knew. "Scared."

And that made it easier. "No. Terrified."

"It's okay. It's normal."

"Not for me. I have never been this afraid." He heaved another sigh. "I don't know what to do, Gen."

"Yes, you do. Find your family. That doesn't change, no matter what we learned."

"No, that does not change, but the chance that they are dead or insane has. The chance is greater. And I don't know what to do if that has happened. Fuck, I don't even know what to do if they are alive. We can't stay in the city, but there is no where else to go. If they are still alive, I don't know how I'm going to keep them alive."

"You talk like you're alone in this, but you're not alone. You have the rest of us, and we'll help you figure something out. Hell, even Connor seems like he wants to help."

"No, that is exactly what he wants us to _think_," Niko said.

"Probably. In any case, let's just focus on one problem at a time, okay? You'll drive yourself crazy trying to find a solution to every problem at once. And who knows? Maybe we won't need to find one; maybe a solution will present itself."

"Nothing is ever that easy."

Gen sighed. "Have you always been this pessimistic?"

"What do you think?"

"I think I shouldn't have even bothered asking."

He smiled a little. "Nope."

They fell silent. Gen stretched out on the steps, reclining on her elbows and dipping her head back to look up at the splotch of night sky that could be seen between the buildings surrounding the house. The dreary clouds that had smothered the daytime had moved out, leaving night uncloaked. Just that little bit of sky above them was a stunning sight, emblazoned with innumerable stars; tiny diamonds spilled on dark velvet.

"You never see that in the city," Gen said.

"What?" Niko asked.

She pointed up. "That. Stars. You see them, but never that many. The city lights drown most of them out. It's pretty."

"In the village I grew up in, there was no electricity for most of my childhood. At night, you could see the stars like this. Countless. Sometimes I would look at them for a long time, until everything else faded away, and it would seem like I was floating in space. It was...a nice feeling. I used to wonder what was up there. Now I wish I didn't know."

Gen nodded her understanding. "For the past decade, all you ever heard from the Space Administration was that there was likely life out there somewhere and they were going to find it one day. Guess they never thought it would find us first."

"They knew something, or they would have never sent that expedition team to the South Pole."

"True, but I doubt even professional space nerds expected to find alien women buried under the ice. I mean, we know for certain now that there's life out there. Intelligent life. Not only that, but since these parasites and their 'Mothers' are able to breathe our air and stuff, there might be a planet out there somewhere like ours."

"Or there _was_. They wouldn't have left it in the first place if it was still livable."

"Maybe. Jesus, I keep wondering if I'm going to wake up soon in that hospital and realize all this was just a bizarre coma dream."

"If only it was."

From inside the house came Connor's cry of "Aw, yeah! Full house!", followed by "I hate this game," from Bernie and a loud "Uggh!" from Eve.

"You want to know something funny?" Niko said.

"Sure. I could use a good laugh."

"I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid."

And laugh Gen did. He smiled; he thought she'd appreciate the humorous absurdity of that, given the situation.

"Why an astronaut?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Same reason some kids want to be firefighters or police officers."

"I don't buy that. You're not like other guys, and I don't think you were like other kids, either. Really, why? I'm not going to poke fun at you."

Niko considered her for a moment, then decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Anything that could take me as far away from home as possible appealed to me. That's why. You can't get any further away than space."

"You really hated it there, huh?"

"I did. I have very few good memories of home. The rest...it's just pain and misery. Those are the only things I have truly known, and it seems those are the only things I will ever know."

"Oh, God," Gen mourned. "Keep talking like that and you're going to make me hug the crap out of you."

"You asked."

She didn't make good on her soft threat, but she did give his arm a soft squeeze. "I'm so sorry."

"For asking?"

Gen laughed a little. "No, you dope. For everything else. The life you've had to live."

"Stop feeling sorry for me. Save it for someone else," he said, not unkindly.

"It's kind of hard not to feel sorry for you."

"I don't want you to."

"Why?"

"I just don't."

"Stop evading."

"Stop pushing."

"Why is it so hard for you to give a straight answer? I don't understand it. I already know the worst thing about you, so what's there left to hide?"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore. Let it go."

The woman sulked. "Fine."

He made a face. "Come on, don't get mad."

"I'm not."

"No? Or is that just universal woman speak for 'I'm really pissed off and I'm going to castrate you in your sleep'?"

That got a small laugh out of her. "I wouldn't think you'd care if I got mad at you. Hell, you should be used to it by now."

"I don't want you to be mad at me. I want you to understand that there are some things people can talk about and some things they can't."

She nodded. "Okay. I'm honestly not mad. Just a little disappointed, I guess. Despite the, uh...'differences' we've had, I think we _can_ be friends, and I have all the intention in the world of being the kind of friend you can talk to if you need to, someone who will listen and not judge. You can tell me anything."

No, he couldn't. She _would_ judge him; she would judge him, condemn him to hell, and would likely try to send him there herself if she knew he might have had a hand in the death of her fiancé. "You've judged me in the past. Why should I believe you wouldn't now?"

"Yeah, I judged you and that was wrong; I only saw you for who you were and not who you've become, but my vision isn't as short-sighted anymore. I see a guy who's been through and done some horrible shit, all of which would turn just about anyone into a heartless monster, but he isn't a heartless monster. Rough around the edges, sure, but he has a good heart." She smiled. "And he may annoy the shit out of me sometimes, but I still kind of like him."

It was a nice thing to say, but Niko wished she hadn't said any of it. It didn't make him feel good, only guilty. "You really shouldn't."

Gen frowned. "I forgot to mention, he's also confusing as hell."

He shrugged. "So are you."

From the house, Travis announced that dinner was ready. Niko was grateful for the end that put to the conversation.

Travis fed his guests a fabulous dinner they would not soon forget. He had cooked them peppered steaks seasoned to perfection, with fried potatoes, buttered rolls, and a steamed vegetable medley. To compliment the meal, he opened a fine bottle of shiraz wine for the adults and a soda for the kid. Plates were cleaned of almost every morsel of food, and not a one of them could remember the last time they had eaten so well.

Afterward, Gen sat back in her chair, rubbing her full belly. "I think I just gained ten pounds."

Travis smiled. "Good. Scrawny little thing like you could use some meat on her bones."

"Scrawny? I was a cop before crazy came to town, I'll have you know. I've taken down some pretty big guys."

"By pestering them until they gave themselves up?" Niko asked.

For that remark, Gen propelled a pea at him with her fork. Her aim was perfect. The little seed vegetable went sailing right for his smug face. He put a hand up in time, and the pea bounced off his palm onto the table.

She laughed. "Damn you."

Bernie gave her a reproachful look. "Mind your manners. What is our host going to think?"

"I don't mind," Travis said. "The world's gone to hell. Might as well get your kicks however you can. Speakin' of which, more wine?"

"I will take half a glass," Bernie said.

"I really shouldn't..." Gen said, torn for instant. "Oh, what the hell." She pushed her glass over. "One more"

She and Bernie helped Travis finish off the bottle, then they were kind enough to clean and put away all the dirty dishes for him. Afterward, Travis showed everyone where the bedrooms were before retiring to his own for the night.

"So, how is the sleeping arrangement going to go?" Bernie asked.

"The obvious route. Girls in one room, boys in the other," Gen said.

"I'll take the couch," Connor said. "I don't trust sleeping in the same room with _him_." He made a sharp gesture at Niko. "I have a feeling I wouldn't make it through the night."

Niko ignored him. He was being baited and he wasn't going to bite. "Any particular room you want?" he asked Gen.

"Doesn't matter to me. I was thinking you might want the room with two beds. Bernie seems like the type to get frisky with a good-looking guy, whether that guy is straight or not," she teased.

"I would never get 'frisky' with him. He is my friend!" Bernie protested with a reddening face.

Now it was Niko's turn to do the teasing. It was about time he got her back for that moment in that alleyway when she had tried to get him to admit he'd been staring at her while she was nearly topless. "You think I'm good-looking?"

Gen hadn't realized what she'd said until he'd pointed it out. She had just tried to have a little fun at Bernie's expense. Now she struggled for a quick response as heat creeped up her neck. "I just meant...well, uh...I just assumed _he_ thought you were good-looking." _Nice save, dummy._

He looked so smug Gen considered strangling him for it. "That would be more believable if you weren't blushing."

The woman drew herself up to appear dignified, and pretended none of this was happening to her. "_I'm going to bed_." She took hold of Eve's hand, who was just about falling asleep standing up, and did just that.

* * *

Morning came too soon.

The sun was shining in through the bedroom window, warming Gen's face. Every part of her body told her she was not ready to get up, but nonetheless, up she got. Eve had awoken before her for a change; the left side of the bed where the girl had slept was empty.

After pulling on her socks and shoes, Gen prepared for the road ahead, stuffing some of Eve's new clothes in her backpack, then putting the rest of the articles in the girl's. Afterward, she reloaded her Glock and M-16 mags.

With that out of the way, she headed out of the room to see who else was up.

There were sounds of life coming from the living room, along with the aromas of brewing coffee and frying bacon. Despite how well Travis had fed them last night, the smell made Gen hungry.

She found Travis standing over the stove, flipping pancakes and whistling a tune. Bernie and Connor were seated at the dining room table, talking, and over in the living room, Niko busied himself with loading bullets into his own magazines while Eve looked on, more interested in watching him than Travis' kitchen performance.

Despite the animosity that existed between Niko and Connor, there was an easy, relaxed atmosphere surrounding the motley group. It was nice to see them all that way for a change, but Gen knew it was only temporary. Once they headed back out onto the streets, the tension and gravity would return. But until then, Gen would enjoy what little peace they had been given.

"Good morning!" she greeted everyone with a cheerful tone.

Bernie and Connor looked up from their conversation as the woman sauntered over to the table and parked herself in a chair, giving them both a bright smile.

Connor rose a brow at her chipper mood. "Well, somebody must've had a wet dream last night."

Bernie snorted a laugh into the coffee mug raised to his lips and a little bit of joe sputtered out on him. "Look what you made me do."

Gen made a face. "Am I not allowed to be in a good mood without someone having to make cracks about it?"

"You apparently don't know me very well," Connor replied.

She smiled. "I guess that's something to be grateful for."

"Oh, come on," he said. "You might like me if you got to know me better. You could at least _try,_ anyway. Bernie is kind enough to."

"Yeah, well, Bernie also stares at your ass when you're not paying attention."

"Can I help it if he has a cute butt?" Bernie said in his own defense. "I could eat off of those buns."

Laughter rolled out of Gen and Connor turned a curious shade of red.

"Um...I'm flattered," he said. "Really. But just so there's no misunderstanding, I'm also straight."

"I'm aware of that, hon," Bernie said. "When I'm staring at your butt, you are staring at hers."

"So, why don't you tell us something about yourself?" Gen said, changing the subject.

"What do you want to know?" Connor asked.

She shrugged. "Whatever you want to tell."

"Um...well, I'm not orginally from this city. I'm a farmboy."

Gen laughed. "You're not serious?"

"I'm serious. My parents had a farm outside of Los Santos. Grew wheat and shit. The farm didn't do too well, though. They lost it when I was ten, so we had to move here. Lived with my grandparents for a while. I hated it here; it was too loud and too crowded. Lost contact with all my LS friends, too. Got angry at life and went through a rebellious phase that eventually got me kicked out of the house when I was seventeen. Lived on the streets for a few years. Picked pockets to keep myself fed. And one day I thought I picked the wrong pocket. I thought the guy was going to turn me over to the cops, but he gave me a job instead."

"Lucky break," Gen said. "What kind of job was it?"

"He owned a resturant. I washed his dishes. And I can say without a doubt, I'd take washing dishes over picking pockets every time. Being forced to do bad shit like that, it puts a burden on your conscience. I always felt bad when I took someone's wallet, always wondered if I was taking all someone had to feed their children or something."

"You did what you had to do to survive," Gen said. "There's someone among us who I think understands that well."

"You?"

"No. So, this guy who cut you a break, is he out there? I would imagine you'd want to find him."

"No, he died a few years back. Heart attack. I was out having my break with him. We were just shooting the breeze, laughing and whatnot, and he just keels over and that was it."

"Oh, God. I'm sorry."

Connor nodded. "He was a good guy. Kind of lonely. He didn't have any family, no wife or children. He thought of me as a son. I never knew that until after he died. Found out he'd left his resturant and a hundred thousand dollars to me in his will. And a letter. All it said was: I have given you the tools to make something of yourself. Build yourself tall, Connor, so that people have to look up at you."

"He believed in you, saw potential."

"Yeah. So, I built. Used that hundred grand to open up another resturant. Named it after him."

"How did that go?"

"Surprisingly well. Had a rocky start that first year, but it got off its feet. Then the city went to shit."

Gen asked a seemingly unfitting question for the subject, "How old are you?"

"Twenty-four."

"An owner of two successful resturants at twenty-four." She smiled. "I think your friend would be proud of how tall you've built yourself."

Connor smiled back. "I hope so."

From the kitchen, Travis announced, "Breakfast is ready, so come get it before I eat it all."

The meal consisted of fluffy, buttery pancakes, crispy bacon, potato hash with bell peppers and onions, and buttered toast. For beverages, they had their choice of milk, orange juice, or coffee.

When the meal was a thing of the past, the group chatted with Travis over a last cup of coffee, then their host saw them off, wishing them well and asking them to check in on his pathologist friend.

"I know it's a lot to ask," he said. "But I'd like to know what's happened to him. He's holed up in that hospital over in Schottler. I'm keepin' my ham radio goin' all the time in case he ever responds, so you can contact me through his. I'd like to know how you folks are doin' as well and whatever news you get from over there."

"You are the first person to have shown us kindness," Niko said. "If we get the chance, we will look in on your friend."

"That's good of you." Travis smiled. "As my pop would say, you're the cat's pajamas."

Niko gave him a weird look. Years of being subjected to American culture had broadened his collection of common phrases and idioms, but this was a new one.

Gen saw the confusion and leaned toward him. "It's a compliment. He thinks you're wonderful."

"Oh." He tried to give Travis a friendly smile and was half-successful. "Uh...thanks."

Travis nodded. "Well, I won't keep you any longer. It was good knowin' you folks while we had the chance. Stay safe out there."

With that, the group headed off, getting into their routine travel formation.

They were a few miles away from the Helitours dock, though they had intended to shorten the trip somewhat by taking a shortcut through Chinatown. The area was utterly decimated, a mini wasteland of leveled buildings and smashed up vehicles. At the heart of the destruction was an enormous hunk of metal, scorched and blackened with carbon dust. The scorch radius traveled outward from the object a ways, covering ground and rubble. The group moved around the object, and though most of it had been destroyed beyond recognition, there was a section of it still intact for the most part. A dome-shaped section; a cockpit. There was nothing inside. When the strike jet smashed into the ground, the ensuing inferno had likely turned the pilot into ash.

No one needed to ask what had caused this.

"I have been thinking," Niko said as he hauled himself up the remains of a car, then reached down to lift Eve onto it. "Maybe the chopper ain't such a good idea."

"If you're worried about _this_ happening to us," Gen said, gesturing at the destroyed military aircraft. "You may not need to. I mean, Travis said it's likely the Mother won't do anything since we're not a threat."

"You will forgive me if I don't wish to risk all of our lives on a maybe," he replied. "Besides, that is not the only thing I'm worried about. A chopper will attract a lot of attention, and not just from those lunatics and their Mothers. The survivors, too. They will hear it, they will see it, and they will want it. It's a way out of this and they will kill for it."

"But it's your way out, too. Not just a way into Broker, but also a way to get your family out of the city."

"It doesn't matter. Even if we are able to land safely in Broker, the chopper will just sit out in the open. We can't exactly guard it. Someone will come along and take it."

"Not if we land the thing right outside your cousin's house. The rest of us can guard it while you go get your family."

Niko shook his head with a grim look. "That is another problem. It can only hold so many people. Too much weight will eat up the fuel. We would never make it to the mainland...unless some of us stayed behind. And how do we chose who has to stay behind, Gen?"

"I can't speak for the others, but I'll stay behind if it comes to that."

That caused him to stop in his stride. He turned a stunned look on her, and for a moment, he had no idea what to say. Sometimes he just didn't understand the woman. "You know what that means. You will be alone here. You won't survive on your own."

"I also know what protect and serve means, too, and like I said, if it comes down to it, this is how I'm choosing to do it. The safety of civilians comes before my own safety."

Niko felt a surge of irrational anger. "You know what, I really wish you would stop acting like a fucking cop and start acting like a human being."

Gen laughed. "Last time I checked, cops are human beings."

He looked quite irritated with that response. "You know what I mean. Are you so stupid that you have no sense of self-preservation? Or does your life just hold no value to you?"

Gen put her hands on her hips and shook her head in disbelief. "Are you seriously insulting me for doing the right thing?"

"It ain't right. It's stupid!"

She snorted. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the former _hitman_ can't tell what's right and what's wrong."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you are still using that against me," he shot back. "It's getting old."

She waved that off. "Whatever. And just so we're clear, it's my life and I'll do whatever the hell I want with it."

"Yes, it's your life. It may hold no value to you, but there is at least one among us who does value it, Gen. You might want to consider the choices you make more carefully, for her sake."

"Don't pretend this is about Eve when you know damn well it's about _you_."

"It has nothing to do with me!" he raged.

"Oh? I remember you saying a while back that you didn't want me going out of my way to help you find your family, because you didn't want my death on your conscience. So, it wouldn't be on your conscience if I choose to stay behind and die as a result to give you and your family a chance to get out?"

Niko wasn't having this. He turned the tables on her. "Have you even considered what it will do to the kid if you stayed behind? Or do you even care?"

And Gen flipped the tables right back on him. "If I do it, it's as much for her as it is for anyone else. Your safety means her safety. Or have you decided she can just stay behind to die with me, since you seem so certain I'm going to die?"

_That fucking bitch_. He wanted to wring her damn neck. "I never asked for your fucking help, Gen. I never wanted it. You _forced_ it on me and now you are forcing this on me."

"And you're a real piece of fucking work, Niko. I've never met anyone as _ungrateful_ as you are!"

"You both need to calm down," Bernie insisted. "You are getting ahead of yourselves. There is no point arguing about this now when we haven't even gotten into Broker yet. A solution may present itself when we get there. So, let's wait and see what happens first before we decide if anyone has to stay behind."

"No one stays behind," Eve said. There was a fierce look on her young face. "No one. It's not fair! We have to stay together. _We have to_." And now her face crumpled. "You're all my family now."

Niko looked away from that heart-wrenching expression and put a stone-cold one on the woman. "Does it still seem like the right thing to do, Gen?"

"I hate you," she said and walked away.

_Good,_ he thought. It was better if she hated him. Better for both of them.

* * *

They reached the Helitours dock without too much trouble. They'd had to take cover in the Chinatown rubble to avoid a group of freaks, but it had been smooth sailing from there.

The group hunkered down behind the remains of a tank, assessing the scene. It didn't look good.

The concrete, 'prison walls' had been built up around the docks and around the remains of the Broker bridge. The helicopter sat out on the docks, as Travis had said, but it wasn't alone. Quite a number of corpses were keeping it company. It looked like they had all been ripped apart by a pack of wild animals. There was blood everywhere, splashed up the side of the chopper and pooled around on the ground. Body parts and guts were strewn about. From men, women, and even a few children. They must've been the people Travis had mentioned seeing, checking out the chopper.

Further up the road near Pier 45, there was a large mob of freaks roaming about. There was no way they could reach the shop there that Travis had talked about. It seemed the decision of whether or not to take the helicopter had been made for them. It was now their only option, and even it looked iffy.

"How are we going to get to it?" Bernie asked. "Those freaks will notice us."

"We need a distraction," Gen said.

"Easier said than done," Niko replied.

"I'm thinking one of these abandoned cars out here might come in handy," Gen said. "Or a bus. I could drive it into their mob. That'll give you guys-"

"No," he cut her off.

"Would you just hear me out first?"

He gave her a furious look. "_No_. Think of something else that doesn't involve sacrifice and I will listen."

"Sometimes a sacrifice has to be made," she countered. "It sucks but it's a part of life."

"You really don't fucking care if you live or die, do you?" There was so much disgust in his tone.

"I care, but I'm not afraid to die if it means others will live."

"You are an idiot."

"Can you say you wouldn't do the same for _your_ family?"

"That's different, Gen, because they _are_ family. We are more or less strangers to you."

Gen shook her head. "Yeah. Strangers." He didn't understand. Bernie and Eve, they had become like family to her. Even him, in some ways. They were all she had in the world, and she had come to care for them in her own way. She might have confessed if she wasn't so certain he would call her an idiot for that, too.

"Let's just think of something else," Bernie said.

"The car idea could still work," Connor spoke. "If we could find a brick or something, we can put it on the gas pedal and let the car drive itself into their mob. That should make everyone happy." He grinned. "Well, except the Reds, but who cares about them."

"I'm sure Niko will find something wrong with it," Gen said with a bitter tone. "As he seems to find something wrong with _everything_."

The man ignored her. "That is probably as good a plan as anyone is going to think up. Let's do this."

"You should probably head over to the chopper," Gen suggested. "You're the only one who knows how to use the damn thing and it might be a good idea to have you ready to take off. Connor and I can take care of the car."

"You won't be able to start it without a key. It will need to be hotwired and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who knows how to do that, too."

"No, you're not," Connor said with a smug look. "As I mentioned earlier, I was a rebellious teenager. I've hotwired my fair share of cars."

Niko frowned. He didn't like it, but it was two against one now. If he protested, they would argue with him until they were blue in the face, and he was sick of the arguing. "Fine. Just don't do anything fucking stupid."

With that, he slinked off for the chopper, keeping cover behind whatever he could to avoid catching any lunatic eyes.

"How do you put up with him?" Connor asked the woman.

Gen shrugged. "He's okay sometimes. He only acts like a grumpy, petulant child when he doesn't get his way."

"That's putting it lightly."

She smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "Find a car. I'll look for a brick or something."

"Right."

"Bernie, you and Eve should go with Niko. Tell him to have that chopper going the moment the car mows through that mob. We have to have this timed right, or we're going to get mobbed. I doubt the car is going to distract every last one of them."

Bernie nodded and took hold of Eve's hand. "Stay very close to me, sweetie." Then the two made their way for the dock, keeping cover as Niko had done.

Gen didn't have trouble finding something to weigh down the gas pedal. She found a large, heavy piece of rubble from back the way they had come earlier and brought it to Connor where he was seated behind the wheel of a Sentinel with an unobstructed path to the luantics. His hands worked deftly with the wires under the steering column. When the car came to life, Gen sat the bit of rubble in his lap.

The Sentinel was an automatic, so that made things a bit easier for Connor. Keeping his foot on the brake pedal, he rolled the rubble into the foot well and onto the gas pedal. The car gave a small jump forward, but went no further than that. Soon, the wheels began spinning in place, screeching and smoking. The noise drew the lunatics' attention. Almost as one, they turned in Gen and Connor's direction and broke for them.

Gen began backing away, readying her assault rifle. "Come on, Connor. Now's the time."

"They need to get a little bit closer," he said, raising his voice over the discord of screaming tires and screaming lunatics.

"They're close enough. _Come on_!"

"Just a little more..."

The lunatics were halfway between Pier 45 and the Helitours dock; too close for comfort.

Finally, Connor let off the brake and the car lurched forward. He had but a few seconds to steer the car in line with the mob, then he bailed out through the open door, hitting the pavement. He rolled, skinning his arms and banging up his knees. Gen was there in a heartbeat, pulling him up to his feet. They watched for a second as the car mowed into the mob of lunatics, running right over some and knocking others aside.

Gen gave Connor a nudge. "Let's go!"

The two ran for the dock. It seemed Bernie had delivered her message to Niko, and it had actually gotten through his hard head. The chopper's rotor blades were spinning up. Their power made air stir up dirt and dust from the ground and it tugged at the clothes of the dead, as well as the living.

As they neared the helicopter, Gen saw Bernie standing in the cabin, yelling something at them, but neither one of them could hear him over the loud _whop-whop-whop_ of the rotor blades. It became clear what he was trying to tell them when the man rose his rifle and fired off a shot.

Gen spun around and the lunatics were right there, only a few yards away. _There's too many of them_. "Tell him to take off!" she shouted at Connor, firing off a few rounds on the lunatics closing in. "If he doesn't, we're going to get mobbed!"

"But-"

"_Now_!"

At the fierce command in her voice, Connor turned and bolted as Gen took down more lunatics, but she just couldn't take them down fast enough, even with Bernie's help. Everytime one fell, it seemed another took his or her place, and they were getting closer and closer.

Gen turned from them and ran for the chopper, feeling them right on her heels. Just as the chopper lifted from the ground, she dove for the cabin and pulled herself inside. Gen rolled over onto her back, letting out a huge sigh.

"We did it." She smiled. "_We did it_."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Niko said, guiding the chopper out over the water. "We've done nothing until we've safely landed in Broker."

Gen laughed. "Fine. Then we're half way to doing it!" She sat up, looking at him. "I told you we'd find a way."

He glanced at her to see her smiling at him. It wasn't smug in any way, but joyful. It changed her, made her seem beautiful, and it put a funny, fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach. "You did. I should have-"

He was cut off by a sound that made blood run cold and hearts stop for an instant. A hellish sound, a hellish growl of mindless rage. The lunatic appeared from the chopper's landing skids. Eve screamed and Gen fumbled for her M-16. The madman grabbed it, yanked it so hard from her that it snapped the strap. It tumbled from the chopper. The lunatic snatched her and she kicked at him, her foot catching his knee. It buckled and he slipped from the cabin, dragging her with him. Someone shouted her name and whether or not it was the same person who grabbed her arm before she could plunge from the helicopter she couldn't say.

Keeping one hand braced against the side of the cabin, Connor tried to pull her back inside, but at the same moment, the lunatic pulled on Gen as he tried to climb his way up her. The freak might have taken them both from the chopper had Bernie not grabbed Connor by the waist of his pants. He was the only thing keeping them there.

While all this was happening, Niko shut it out. He had no choice. While Bernie was the only thing keeping Connor and Gen from plunging into the water below, Niko was the only thing keeping them in the air. If he lost focus, they would all die.

"I can't keep this up much longer!" Bernie said, struggling to hold onto Connor. He could feel the fabric of the man's pants starting to give way. "Pull her up!"

"I'm trying!" Connor growled. "That fucker keeps pulling down on her!"

By now, the lunatic had her by the torso. If he got any closer, he would reach the cabin. He would reach _them_, and that wasn't going to happen.

Gen coiled an arm around the landing skid and wrenched her other from Connor's grasp.

"Shit!" he shouted and fumbled for her. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"One life isn't worth four." And she let go.

"No!" Connor cried out in horror, watching her fall and fall and fall until the water swallowed her and the lunatic. "Oh, _Jesus_!"

Something in his cry broke through Niko's focus. He glanced back for a brief moment. Connor and Bernie were staring over the side of the cabin, pale-faced. Eve was sobbing. And he knew. Gen was gone.

He should have felt some kind of relief. She was annoying, caused him more than enough trouble, and complicated everything. He should have felt anything but what he was feeling, like he had just lost a friend.

"_Motherfucker_!"

* * *

**A/N:**

Yep, she's dead. Gen-haters rejoice! Oh, wait, or _is_ she? Anyway, apologies for the late update. And apologies in advance for the lack of update next week. I'm going to be out of town with no access to the internet, so expect the next chapter on the 20th of August.


	13. Chapter 13: In-fighting

**Chapter Thirteen: In-fighting**

* * *

**T**he chopper landed safe on a Firefly Island beach. It was strangely deserted, as were the ruined streets around the area.

No one said anything about it, as no one could find it in themselves to care when their friend was gone.

The quartet sat inside the chopper for the longest time. When the rotor blades finally stopped spinning, the only sound was Eve's heart-wrenching wails. Bernie held her, rocking her against him with tears on his own face. Connor sat on the cabin's ledge, staring at the sand, stunned and racked with guilt. He wondered if he could have done more to prevent what had happened.

Niko got out of the cockpit, slamming the door back with a shouted curse. He paced through the sand, wanting nothing more than to pound the shit out of something, but there was nothing to pound.

Or maybe there was.

The man stopped his furious pacing and looked at Connor, the one who'd been holding onto Gen before she fell. His face darkened like a storm, then Hurricane Niko swept across the beach. "_You_!"

Connor looked up at the sound of his voice, and blanched at what he saw coming for him. He lurched from the edge of the cabin and backed away. He considered running away. He probably should have. "Now hold on! I didn't-"

Niko's fist got acquinted with Connor's face. "You useless fucking piece of shit!" The blow made Connor's vision explode into a million fragments of light and it knocked him down on the sand. Niko was on him an instant later, straddling the man, pinning him down. He punched him again, and it felt good. Oh, it felt _wonderful; _punching him had been something he'd wanted to do for a while now_._ "I know what you didn't fucking do! You didn't hold on to her!" The next strike he delivered broke Connor's nose. The man cried out in agony. "Or maybe you let her go on fucking purpose!" His fist drew back again, but a hand grabbed his wrist before the blow could land.

Bernie dragged his enraged friend off Connor, and Niko didn't make it easy for him. He struggled like a wild animal, refusing to be restrained. "You are acting crazy! _Calm down_!"

Groaning, Connor put a hand over his battered nose and tried to sit up. His head whirled and his ears rang. The man had only struck him thrice, but it still felt like he'd received the beating of a lifetime. Wiping blood from his mouth, he looked at his attacker. Bernie had a firm hold on him, and Connor was grateful for that. Niko looked absolutely murderous. "I didn't let go of her. She let go of me."

There was silence as that took several moments to sink into Niko's rage-fogged mind.

"_What_?"

"She let go of me, tore from my grasp. She said one life isn't worth four. I guess she thought that fucking lunatic was going to get inside the chopper. I don't know. _She let go of me_!"

Niko burst with a few choice swears in a language that only Bernie could understand, then he jerked from his friend's grasp and climbed into the chopper's cabin. He looked under the back seats for the metal box of emergency tools and supplies the Helitours Mavericks came equipt with. He found it and pulled it out.

"What are you doing?" Bernie asked him.

Niko rummaged through the box with unnecessary force. "We are going back for her."

If Bernie hadn't been sure of it moments ago, he was sure of it now. His friend cared for the woman, more than he should. More than what was good for him. "You know the risk. If we didn't attract attention the first time, it's likely we will the second."

"I don't care. If there is even the slightest chance that she is still alive, I will not leave her out there. She is one of us. She is our friend. I don't leave friends behind."

Bernie only nodded, then went to check on Connor.

Niko found what he was looking for, a long and strong rope ladder used for rescues. He gave it a rueful look. If only they had noticed it was there before, maybe they could've used it to help her somehow.

He attached it to the eye bolts above the outside of the cabin and tested it to make it sure it was going to hold. He tossed the rest of the ladder inside, then held his hands out to the sobbing girl. "Come here."

Eve stared at the blood on his hands and shrank away, her teary, puffy and red eyes wide and uncertain. She was frightened by him, as if things weren't bad enough for the girl.

Niko sat on the edge of the cabin and forced a pacific bearing upon himself in hope of diminishing her doubt. "I'm not going to hurt you. I would never do that, Eve."

The sincerity in his voice seemed to be enough for her. She crawled across the cabin to sit on the ledge with him. Tentative at first, she leaned against him for comfort. Niko put an arm around her and gave what he could.

"Do you think she's still alive?" Eve asked.

"I don't know," he answered, honestly. "But we are going to find out. And if she is, we are going to get her back. I promise."

Eve hugged him tight. "I believe you."

Niko patted her on the back, then stood from the cabin and turned to the other two. Bernie was poking around Connor's nose, making him wince and moan.

"It's broken," Bernie observed.

"No kidding," Connor replied with a dry note in his voice. "It's going to be crooked for the rest of my life."

"Be glad you still have your worthless fucking life," Niko steamed.

"Yeah, well, you know what? I wouldn't be fucking worthless if you'd give me a goddamn chance to prove that I can be worth _something_."

"You had your chance," he growled. "You let her fall."

"I didn't let her, for Christ's sake! Stop blaming me for this!"

"Then who should I blame!? You're the one who had her. You shouldn't have let her get out of your grasp!"

"Yourself," Connor dared. "That's who you should blame."

Niko stiffened. His face tightened. "What the _fuck_ did you just say to me?"

"Yeah, that's right, you're to blame for this. If you had even bothered to _try_ to trust me, you could've armed me and I could've used that fucking gun to take out that lunatic. Gen never would've needed to sacrifice herself."

Hands curling into tight fists, Niko moved forward with the sole intent of beating the man into pulp this time, but Bernie rose between him and his punching bag.

"Walk away," he said. "He is not worth it."

"It'll be worth it to hear him scream."

"Walk away for our friend," Bernie said. "We don't have time to waste. If Gen and that freak survived that fall, she faces him alone. If he hasn't ripped her apart already, he will eventually."

Niko considered his words, and knew Bernie was right, but it still took everything in him to let Connor get away with his accusation. "Fine."

Bernie helped Connor to his feet as Niko jumped into the cockpit and started the helicopter up. They still seemed to be in the clear for now. The beach and surrounding streets were still empty. They hadn't grabbed attention yet, but the chance for that would increase ten fold when they took to the air again.

It didn't matter to Niko. All that mattered was finding his friend, hopefully alive. A potential friend he didn't even know was already a friend until she was gone. It made him uneasy how that had snuck up on him.

* * *

The waterway slammed into Gen and the lunatic, jolting them and driving them apart. Gen didn't know which hurt more, the impact or the frigidity of the water. Stunned, she sank further and further below the water. The sunlight sparkling on the surface grew dim and dimmer. At last, her brain got a message of mobility through to the rest of her body. Gen fought with the waterway, kicked her legs, flailed her arms about as she tried to break for the surface. She got no where. Her backpack weighed her down. Gen struggled out of it, her chest tight and burning, screaming for air. Freed, she kicked and flailed, kicked and flailed until her head reemerged from the water.

She drew in a great gulp of air, coughed it back out, then drew it in again. She looked around. The lunatic was not far away, staring about himself as if confused. Until he saw her. With a monstrous roar, he lunged through the water for her, lashing at it as if to remove the liquid obstacle between him and his prey.

Lunatics may have been good at tearing people apart, but they were horrible swimmers. Lashing at the water did not propel him forward with much speed, but rather held back whatever speed he might have been able to accomplish. Truly, it was his single-minded desire to kill her and feed on her blood that kept him from reaching his goal sooner.

Gen might have laughed at the wonderful irony of that, but she had more important endeavors, like finding a way out of the water. She knew it was going to come down to her eventually taking on the lunatic. She barely had a chance against one on dry land. In the water, she was as good as dead.

Slabs of concrete and debris that had once been the Broker bridge stuck out of the water west of her position, but it was too far away to reach. Then she noticed a half-submerged garbage barge near the Broker wall. That was as good as it was going to get.

Gen dove under the water and swam for it, resurfacing only for air. It seemed like she had swam a mile. By the time she reached the barge, her legs felt heavy and the muscles in her arms burned and ached. She pulled herself up onto the part of the barge still sticking out of the water and turned to check the lunatic's position. He was midway there.

Her M-16 lost when the lunatic attacked her in the chopper, Gen reached for her last firearm, the Glock tucked in the waist of her pants.

Her heart lurched. The gun was gone. It must've come loose from her pants when she'd struck the water. And its twin was in her backpack, which was now likely resting at the bottom of the waterway. The only thing she had left was her Ka-Bar combat knife.

Gen laughed at the situation. Laughed out of fear, laughed out of anger. It seemed to be the only way she could react. She would be forced into close combat, and with a lunatic, that was pretty much a death sentence.

While the lunatic continued to lash and splash his way to the trash barge, Gen scrambled her way up its tilted surface to the squat cabin at its prow. She poked her head inside, looking around for anything useful. Her heart sang. There was a shovel leaning back against the wall, long forgotten by some sanitation worker. Gen grabbed it and climbed up onto the top of the cabin as the lunatic finally made it there.

Dripping wet and snarling, he rushed up the barge's slanted bottom. Gen broadened her stance to balance herself out on the leaning roof of the cabin. She readied the shovel as the freak came on.

He hurtled himself at the cabin, grabbing onto the ledge to pull himself up. Gen gripped the shovel tight, drew it back as far as her arms would allow and drove the sharp edge of the spade down onto the lunatic's fingers. The blow mangled the digits, but the lunatic wasn't fazed. Gen backed up a bit as he clawed his way onto the cabin, smearing black and red blood on the rusty metal surface. She drew the shovel back like a baseball bat and slammed it across his head. The cabin's tilt made it easy for her to knock him off of it. He landed on his side and rolled down the barge's slant. He caught himself, lurched to his feet, and came on again.

Gen rolled her shoulders and prepared for her next attack. "Let's go, you blood-sucking _freak_! I'll take you out piece by piece if I have to!"

In an all too predictable move, the lunatic grabbed for the ledge of the cabin again. Gen rammed the point of the spade into his head this time, the impact making electric-like jolts run up her arms. The spade broke skin and drew a lot of blood, but did no further damage than that. So, Gen drove the spade into his head again and again and again, trying with all she had to break past his skull, past that hardened layer over his brain to smash the parasite that controlled him. It was no good. She was too weak. Her earlier fight against drowning and the swim to the barge had taken most of it from her. All she could do was ward him off, though she knew it was pointless. She would tire long before the lunatic did, then she would be easy game for him.

She was already tired. So tired.

Tears burned her eyes. She didn't want to die like this, at the hands of one of them. She knew it would come to this the moment she had let go of the chopper's landing skid, she knew what it meant, but her terror couldn't be helped.

The lunatic made it halfway onto the cabin's roof again and Gen swung the shovel, knocking him off. "Stay away from me! Go away! _Leave me alone_!" she sobbed, and even to her own ears, she sounded like a frightened child.

Her knees were shaking and aching, threatening to come unhinged. Trying to keep her balance on the tilted roof had pressured them to their limit.

The lunatic was there again and Gen swung the shovel again. And that was it. A knee buckled and she went down, her free hand snatching out for the ledge of the roof to keep herself from slipping off. Her other gripped the shovel tight, but Gen knew she only had the strength to hold onto one or the other. And letting go of roof or shovel meant death either way.

And just as she was about to let her life go for a second time, she heard a noise from the sky. And it sounded like hope.

* * *

Hovering out over the waterway, the first thing they saw was the jets. There were five strike jets in all, submerged in the murk below and spread out in different directions. Bernie and Connor stared at each other.

"Jesus, man, how did we not notice them before?" Connor asked, raising his voice over the noise of the rotor blades.

"We were kind of busy at the time!" Bernie shouted. "But we have proof now that there is truth to what Travis told us, that the Mothers sent the jets into the water! With their _minds_!"

"You know, I'd rather he had been lying about all that shit!"

"Me too!"

No sooner had they gone back to scanning the water for their friend, there was a sound coming from the cockpit, a loud alarm-like booping noise that set nerves on edge. Connor looked over his shoulder to see a red light blinking on the control panel. Then he looked at their pilot. All he could see was the side of the man's face, the features twisted in a frown.

"What the hell is that noise!?" Connor demanded to know.

"We are running low on fuel," Niko replied. "So I suggest you to start looking for Gen and stop looking at me, or we ain't going to make it back!"

"Roger that!"

Bernie grabbed Connor's shoulder. "Look!" He pointed out toward a trash barge half-submerged near the Broker wall and Connor followed his finger, leaning out of the cabin a bit. He could make out two small shapes at its bow.

"It's her!" Bernie confirmed. "But she's not alone! That lunatic is going to kill her!"

"Then do something!" Niko shouted from the cockpit.

Eve was there, peering over the edge. "Is it her? Is it _really_ her!?"

Connor pulled her back to safety as Bernie called to Niko, "Rotate this bird ninety degrees. I can get a shot at that angle, but you have to keep this thing steady!"

"I got it handled!"

While Niko guided the chopper at the appropriate angle, Bernie reloaded his rifle, then he perched himself on the cabin's ledge, his back against the frame to keep his body still. He relaxed his hands a bit and peered down the scope. Gen clung to the slanted roof of the cabin with one hand, her face livid with terror as she tried to ward off the lunatic with the shovel in her other hand. That woman was damn resourceful to have survived against a lunatic as long as she had and with only a gardening tool, or what had seemingly been used as a sanitation tool; she could've only gotten it off that trash barge.

Bernie lined up his shot with the lunatic's head. He inhaled a few deep breaths and tried not to think about the fact that if he missed, Gen would be ripped apart. He pushed his self-doubts and fear and the rest of the world to the back of his mind. Only he and his target existed. Bernie drew in one more breath, held it to steady his aim, and took the shot. The lunatic's head sprayed skull and blood, and his body jerked and fell and lay motionless.

Bernie returned to the world. "He is down! Dead!"

Eve threw her hands up and cried out with joy.

Connor shoved the sturdy rope ladder over the side of the cabin and leaned out to see if the woman could reach it.

Letting the shovel fall, Gen slipped off the cabin, stumbled down the barge's slanted bottom and grabbed hold of the ladder. She struggled to get up it, then stopped altogether.

Connor frowned. "Bernie, help me out here with this ladder. Something's wrong. We need to pull her up."

They each grabbed hold of it and began dragging it up into the cabin. They pulled and pulled, grunting with effort, until the woman's head appeared over the side of the cabin. Bernie and Connor hauled Gen inside. The moment she rolled over onto her back, Eve mauled her with hugs, blubbering incoherently. The woman was too exhausted to reciprocate.

Bernie hovered, checking her for any injuries. Aside from looking like hell, she was unharmed. "Thank goodness you are okay." A frown appeared on his face. "You scared us to death!"

Gen didn't reply. She only looked guilty as she finally found some strength to return the child's affection.

The trip back to Firefly Island was mostly a quiet one, save for the insistent booping coming from the cockpit and Eve asking every few minutes if Gen was okay. The woman hadn't uttered a word, only nodded to Eve's questions. She sat there and trembled. Whether it was from the terror of facing off alone with a lunatic or from being submerged in freezing water, Bernie wasn't certain. It might have been both.

The chopper landed on the beach with a little jostle.

Again, Niko saw no movement on the beach or the streets around Firefly Island. And he liked none of it. As he powered off the helicopter, he remembered what Travis had claimed, that most of the freaks in Broker were more intelligent, more advanced. They had to be out there. Were they waiting for them? Waiting to ambush them? Or were they already fucking with their heads, cloaking their presence with their mind tricks? He had to suppress a shudder. Algonquin had been bad enough, but Niko had a feeling they had just landed in the deepest bowels of Hell.

He stepped out of the chopper as the others fussed over Gen. He looked around, and never in his life had he felt so exposed. So vulnerable.

"We have to get off this beach," he said, turning to the others. "Now."

Connor frowned at him. "Give her a moment to rest. Christ's sake, man, she almost died for us."

"Not here."

Connor opened his mouth to continue his protest, but Niko cut him off before he could utter a word. "Don't fucking argue with me. If you don't like it, then you are free to stay here."

"So, in other words, do what you say or die?"

Niko shrugged and said, "We have a long ways to go-"

"How long is long?" Connor interrupted.

"Meadow Hills, way the fuck across town. I want to get as far as we can before dark, so there will be no stopping." He spared Gen a glance where she was seated on the edge of the cabin. He may have been relieved that she was alive, but in that instant, relief was drowned under a wave of anger. Anger at her foolish actions. She would have died for all of them, but there were only two among them really worth dying for, and it wasn't him and it wasn't Connor. "Can _you_ handle that?"

Gen looked at him, looked at the ground, and nodded. Then she spoke for the first time. "I guess now would be a good time to mention I lost everything. Everything but my knife."

She waited for it, for the man to fly off the handle, but there was no yelling or tossing of insults. Yet. All he gave was a sigh and a dry toned, "Of course." When she glanced up at him for a second, there was irritation all over his face, but nonetheless, he stepped over to her and thrust his Glock into her hands.

"Um...thanks."

When Niko spoke, there was a harsh edge to his voice. "If you hadn't been stupid, none of this would have happened. I just risked everything to bring you back. _Everything_!"

"As I did for you...for all of you."

"And I have no doubt you would do it again. That is the difference between you and me, Gen. _I_ won't do it again."

Gen stood from the cabin, a little wobbly, and stared at him with an expression he couldn't read. "Thank you for coming back for me."

Niko frowned. That wasn't the response he'd expected. He'd expected insults or an argument. "Whatever. Let's get going."

The group headed from the beach to the streets, their designated point man alert and cautious, his eyes on everything and his assault rifle ready to blast away anything that threatened them. The area they moved into might have once been Hove Beach, but it wasn't anymore. It was nothing but ruins and mountains of debris. When the Broker bridge had been destroyed, it had taken down part of the highway that connected to it. That in turn destroyed the elevated railway tracks that ran under it and most of the buildings on the surrounding streets. The old apartment where Niko had stayed with Roman when he'd first arrived in the States, Vlad's old bar...those places of memory were no more, and Niko was not sad to see them gone.

And it wasn't quiet here as it had been on the beach. There was a clamour coming from the northeast of their position, the yelling and screaming sounding a lot like freaks in their state of bloodlust, though Travis had claimed the freaks here weren't as mindless with it as the ones in Algonquin had been.

No one spoke of it, as it was likely people were being torn apart and there wasn't anything they could do about it.

Getting over all the junk was a gruelling chore. Most of it was unsturdy and one misstep could end with a broken ankle or getting impaled on a strip of metal poking up from the wastes. Niko crested a small hill where one of the elevated railway's metal support beams had fallen, and he felt strangely alone. Traveling with these people for so long had gotten him used to feeling a presence close behind him, but he felt no one there. And when he glanced over a shoulder, he saw that the others were lagging behind, struggling to get through the obstacle course. He had to resist an urge to yell at them to hurry the hell up. At this rate, they'd be lucky to make it a few blocks before nightfall.

He waited there to let the rest catch up. Eve made it to him first and Connor was right behind her. They watched as Bernie helped Gen through the debris. The woman was pale and seemed to struggle with every step she took.

"This is too much for her," Connor observed. "You should've let her rest first."

"If she couldn't handle it, then she should've never said she could," Niko replied.

Connor shot him a look of loathing. "It's not like you would've given her much of a choice."

Niko pretended not to hear him. He was done suffering his crap. As far as Niko was concerned, anything Connor said was going in one ear and right out the other. He should have taken that approach a long time ago and saved himself the trouble.

When they were all gathered, they moved on through the field of debris. Niko had intended to take a shortcut through Outlook Park, but the clamour they still heard grew louder as they neared that area, so he decided it was best to avoid it altogether.

However, as he passed over a high slope of debris with a perfect view of the park, he stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw going on over there. "_Oh, my fucking God_!" He couldn't have kept his voice down if his life depended on it. Thankfully, it didn't, as the freaks were a bit preoccupied at the moment to bother with him.

The park and the streets around it were crawling with them and they were engaged in an all-out bloodbath. There was not a single normal human being among the slaughter. All had that dark grey tone to their skin. The freaks tore their own apart. They had turned on each other.

Niko swung around to the others. They had to see this, to confirm he really was seeing what he was seeing and wasn't hallucinating. "Get up here! Quickly!"

Bernie and Connor exchanged a look, then scrambled up the hill of junk. Eve was right behind them and Gen followed her. Even she hurried, despite her tired condition. When they were together, they stood there for a long time, watching, unable to believe their eyes.

"Maybe it's a trick," Bernie spoke first. "Maybe they are messing with us."

"I don't think they are," Niko said. "If they were fucking with our minds, I doubt we would all be seeing the same thing." He looked around at each of them. "We _are_ seeing the same thing?"

"I see freaks killing each other," Connor said.

"As do I," Bernie added.

Eve looked thrilled. "Me too! I hope they all kill each other. Every last one."

"And if they were messing with our minds," Gen said. "We would be dead by now...standing up here in plain sight and within easy reach."

Niko nodded in agreement, feeling a bit relieved that he wasn't seeing things. He was more relieved by the fact that these freaks, for whatever reason, had turned on each other. It achieved an amazing feat: it almost made him happy.

Gen asked the question everyone was thinking, "But why? Why have they turned on each other like this?"

Connor grinned. "Seems like they're a dysfunctional family, oddly like most human families are. I wonder where Mommy is. You'd think she'd want to break up this little sibling rivalry."

"If that happens, I don't want to be around for it," Niko said. "Let's keep moving."

As the rest went on through the mess that obstructed their way, Gen stayed behind for a moment, staring at the freaks in the park, tearing each other's limbs off, ripping guts from stomachs and heads from shoulders in grotesque flourishes of blackened blood. Whatever this was, Gen didn't think it was any 'sibling rivalry'. Something else was going on here, something much more important.

* * *

They made it to Schottler as the sun became a ball of fire straddling the western horizon, setting the sky ablaze with golds, oranges and yellows. They had to pass through this area to get to Meadow Hills. Niko hoped to seek out his friend Little Jacob, as the man still lived in these parts. He didn't know how likely it was that the Jamaican would've holed up in his apartment. It would've been the safest course of action, but then for a guy who went into shootouts baked on cannabis, Jacob had never really been too concerned with safety.

Of course, as all of Niko's hopes had gone, this one too was dashed.

The block on which Jacob's apartment was located was no longer a block, but a disaster area. The same thing that had destroyed most of Chinatown had ripped apart this part of Schottler. They found the remains of a strike jet in the rubble. The buildings that hadn't resorted to crumbled hulks had burned down. The crash had likely happened a week ago, but some buildings were still smoking. The scent of it, as well as the scent of ash, jet fuel, and burning flesh, clung to the entire area.

Niko stood there for some moments, staring at the destruction with a single question on his mind. Was his friend buried somewhere under all this debris? He couldn't know; he might never know.

Bernie noted his distress and the cause of it. And optimistic soul that he was, he tried to force a little positive thinking on his friend. "It's likely he wasn't here when that jet crashed through. He's Jacob; he's not really the type to sit around in a dire situation as this."

"Or he's dead under all this rubble." Niko turned to him, unable to resist the anger boiling in his veins. "Or he got ripped to pieces out there by those fucking freaks. Don't try to make me think positive when there is not a single fucking thing to be positive about!"

"He is your friend," Bernie replied, calm as a breeze. "He knows how much you care for your family. I bet you when all this started Jacob got some weapons together and went to look after them. It's what any friend of yours would do."

And stubborn mule that Niko was, he refused to conform to Bernie's optimism. "I'm not going to bother hoping you are right. It's fucking pointless. Hope does no good; it ensures nothing."

"It keeps you going."

"No. The truth keeps me going."

Bernie shook his head. "Don't confuse the two, Niko. You haven't come this far to find out whether they are alive or not. You have come this far to find them alive. That is hope, not truth."

"He's right," Gen said, smiling. "Listen to those little kernals of wisdom from Bernie the Wise."

"Nobody asked for your opinion."

"Don't snap at her," Bernie admonished, fed up with his attitude. "You want some truth? I will give you some. When you get angry, you take it out on others. It's petty and childish. Grow up, Niko, and learn to deal with your anger like an _adult_."

There was a long stretch of silence following that. Every last one of them was astonished by Bernie's boldness, even Bernie himself. And by the look that gradually made it onto Niko's face, he may have gotten a little too bold.

"You are my friend, Bernie," the man bristled. "So, I will pretend you never said that."

"Yes, you are good at pretending, Niko."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?"

"Nothing, sweetie," Bernie said with a haughty tone. "I think we best move on. The hospital Travis' friend was staying at is nearby. It must still be standing. We should keep our word to Travis and check on him while we're here. If he's no longer there, we will at least have a place to stay for the night."

Gen nodded. "Good idea."

"Fine," Niko said and stormed off.

Shaking his head, Bernie followed with Eve trailing along at his side. Connor and Gen took up the rear. The hospital was several blocks over, and as Bernie had presumed, it was still intact, as were a few of the buildings that surrounded it. The group approached the front doors with caution. They had been left wide open, which was all sorts of wrong. Anyone with any sense would've kept those doors shut and barricaded.

Niko went inside first, creeping into the lobby with not so much as a sound. He kept his M-16 up and at the ready, expecting something or someone to spring out at him. Nothing did, but his guard stayed up.

The others came inside, looking around. It was dark and silent. It seemed the hospital's backup generator had quit or been shut off; they couldn't know which.

"I guess if we're gonna search the place," Connor said, having the sense to keep his voice low. "We should probably split up."

"No," Gen said. "That's way too dangerous. We don't have the firepower we used to have. It'll take longer, but we should search together. I'm thinking we should start with the morgue; that's where Travis' friend spent most of his time."

"The morgue?" Eve replied with a frightened look. "But...that's where they keep all the dead people, right?"

"Dead people can't hurt you," Gen assured her.

"No, but freaks can," Connor pointed out. "And this guy was experimenting on one."

The man got three reproachful looks from the other adults, looks that told him he wasn't helping to mollify the child's fear.

Eve clasped tight to Gen's hand. "I don't want to go to the morgue."

"It'll be fine. The man was only experimenting on one freak." _That we know of_, but Gen didn't think it wise to add that. Somehow this didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. Hopefully that was just her fear talking and not her intuition. "If it's even still alive, we can handle it."

"The morgue will be in the basement," Connor said. "Morgues are always in the basement."

With that, the group located the stairwell and made their way down. They came to the basement door and a hallway beyond it with an elevator at one end and two double doors at the other. Above those doors was the word _Morgue_ in bold black letters.

When they stopped before them, Niko turned to his companions. "Stay back. If that freak is still alive, I'm going to need room to deal with it."

They backed up to give him the space he needed.

The doors were of the swinging variety. Niko tested one first, nudging it with his foot to see if it was unlocked. It swung inward a bit. Without further ado, the man kicked the door open, raising his assault rifle, but nothing came barreling and screaming for his blood.

He stepped inside to confirm that the morgue was indeed empty of anything living, though the place certainly looked 'lived in'. There was medical equipment out and medical books laying open on a few steel tables. There was a desk in a corner that was in utter chaos. A white doctor's coat hung off the back of the desk chair. There were empty cans of beans and fruit sitting around, as well as emergency ration wrappers littering a few surfaces. On another steel table, there was a human-shaped form under a seafoam-green blanket. An instrument table was set up next to it, cluttered with bloody medical tools. Dozens of bloody latex gloves were strewn across the floor. It seemed Travis' friend had decided to forego a sterile environment.

Niko made his way over to the table with the body on it. With the muzzle of his M-16, he lifted back a corner of the blanket. It was as he'd thought, the pathologist's subject of experimentation. His quite dead subject. The top of the head had been taken off, revealing brains that had dried up a bit. Parts of it had been removed. The chest was cut wide open and had been left that way. The corpse looked well into decomposition, the skin greyish white and marbled, and it smelled like no bed of roses.

Niko called the others into the morgue, assuring them it was safe.

Bernie and Eve stayed near the door, wanting nothing to do with the body. Connor hurried over to where Niko was standing, morbidly curious.

"Whoa," he said, staring at the corpse. "Nasty. This must be 'The Subject'."

"It must be."

Gen stood in the midst of the room, looking around, soaking in the scene. There were no signs that the man had struggled with anyone, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. They still had the rest of the hospital to check, but at least the man hadn't gotten cornered down here by freaks, trapped with no way out. That was a horrible way to go.

"I found the radio!" Bernie announced from across the room where he was standing at the cluttered desk. The ham radio had been hiding under all the junk there.

"See if you can contact Travis," Gen said. "I guess we can at least let him know we made it until we find out the fate of his friend."

As Bernie went about doing that with Eve hovering next to him, the other three poked around the morgue. Connor and Niko looked over some notes left by the pathologist, notes that explained his experiments and their results. Not far away, Gen found the specimen under a microscope.

"Guys," she called. "You gotta see this."

The two men gathered behind her as she held up the enclosed petri dish for them to see. Inside was the parasite, a little black thing only slightly bigger than an earthworm, but still a complete nightmare with all its ugly spines and suckers and multiple appendages.

"Behold," Gen said. "The hideous thing that's taken over the world." She tapped on the cover a few times to see if the thing would move.

"I really don't think it's a good idea to piss off the alien life form," Connor said.

"It's dead. Hard to imagine that something this small can cause so much chaos."

"When you really think about it," said Niko. "It's not that surprising. Anything in large numbers can create chaos."

Over at the desk, Bernie got a hold of Travis.

"_You folks made it there safe? All of you?_" came the man's voice over the radio's single speaker.

"We had some trouble, but yes, we are all here and safe enough," Bernie responded through the microphone. "We have not found your friend yet, though. We've only just arrived and came upon your friend's work in the morgue."

"_Was it like he said?_"

"It seems that way. We found the host and the parasite. Both are dead. We will be searching the rest of the hospital for your friend shortly, but we wanted to say hi first."

"_I'm glad you folks are okay. What's it like over there? As bad as my friend mentioned?_"

"A lot of Broker has been destroyed, but we haven't had any trouble with freaks yet. It seems most of them have been drawn to another part of Broker. But we came across some in Outlook Park. They were killing each other."

There was a long pause from Travis. Then, "_Killin' each other? Not normal folks?_"

"Yes, the ones we saw had turned on each other, were ripping each other apart. We were all in plain sight, but they never noticed us."

"_Woo, boy! That's great news! Any idea what's causin' this?_"

"Not yet, but if we find out, we will try to let you know."

"_That's good of you, but don't go gettin' yourselves killed on account of me. I'm fine with just knowin' how my friend is_."

"We will let you know something soon."

"_Roger that. The line's always open._"

Eve leaned over to yell into the microphone. "Bye, Travis!"

There was a chuckle and "_You take care, sweet pea_."

Bernie stood from the chair and faced his friends. "Are you three done exploring here?"

"We've seen all we need to see, I guess," Niko replied.

"Want to have a look at the parasite?" Gen asked.

"No, thank you. I have enough nightmares," Bernie said.

The woman set the petri dish on the table, then she put something a little weighty on top of it. She didn't know why when the thing was dead, but it seemed right to take the precaution.

They headed out of the morgue and began their search for a missing pathologist.

The hospital only had four floors, so they were capable of getting through them all in two hours. However, they found no trace of the man they were looking for.

"This is strange," Bernie said as they headed back down to the morgue. "It seems the man has moved on from this place, but you would think he would've let Travis know."

"Maybe he didn't have the time," said Gen. "Or the choice."

"Or maybe he went out for supplies and the freaks got him," Connor put forth.

Bernie sighed. "Well, either way, there is nothing more we can do."

Back in the morgue, Bernie contacted Travis again and explained about his friend. The man was disappointed, but understood they had done all they could. Travis wished them well and hoped to hear from them again some day, if they all made it to some day.

Bernie assured him that anything was possible.


	14. Chapter 14: Family Reunion

**Chapter Fourteen: Family Reunion**

* * *

**W**hen morning came, Gen awoke to find herself alone in the room. For an instant, panic twisted her gut at Eve's absence, then the chatter from the next room slipped into her groggy head; Bernie's voice and the girl's giggles.

Gen stood from the hospital bed and stretched a bit, grimacing at the slow ache in her legs and the frigid, damp feel of her clothes. She needed to find some new ones before she caught a cold or worse, if she hadn't already. She had been too tired last night to bother with it.

Gen stepped out into the quiet hall, and began her search. Rounding a corner, she found an employee locker room. Most of the lockers had been broken into, likely by Travis' friend or the people the man had been staying here with before they'd been killed. Some lockers were bare, save for a few toiletries, and others had nurse's scrubs hanging from the clothing rods. Gen grabbed the scrubs that looked her size. The uniform was pastel pink with a kimono style, floral-patterned top and plain bottoms. Gen toed off her shoes and socks, peeled off her damp clothes, then pulled the dry ones on. She grabbed a pair of white nurse's shoes from the locker and sat down on the bench to put them on. They were ugly as sin, but they hugged and cushioned her bare feet. Never in her life had she'd worn more comfortable shoes; not even the soft-soled ones she'd worn with her cop uniform could compare.

Gen headed out of the locker room and back the way she came. She stopped at the threshold to the room where the chatter she'd heard earlier had come from, but there was only one occupant now.

She knocked on the door frame so as not to startle the man with her sudden presence. He was always on edge, though no one could really blame him for that. The situation called for it, but considering his past, Gen was almost certain being on edge was a rooted part of his personality, as much as his mistrust for just about anything that breathed.

Seated on the window sill, Niko glanced toward the sound and looked her over for a moment. He decided pink was a good color on her, complimented the tan of her skin. A corner of his mouth twitched. "You get tired of being a cop?"

Gen grinned. "Yeah, I thought I'd try out being a nurse for a while. Where is everyone?"

"They have gone to the cafeteria down the hall, in search of food," he answered.

"Okay." She turned from the threshold.

"Hold on," he called to her. "There is something I wanted to talk to you about."

Gen stepped into the room, folding her arms at her chest as she waited for him to go on.

_She is already getting defensive_, he noted. But perhaps that was half his fault, considering how he'd been treating her lately. "About what happened yesterday-"

"You've already explained how stupid you thought my actions were. Which is fine; you're entitled to your own opinion, but I-"

"It's not that," Niko cut her off. "Connor had you, then he didn't. I want to know what happened; I wasn't back there with all of you."

Gen regarded him for a moment, then shrugged and explained what took place, leaving out no detail.

"So, he didn't let you go?" he asked, afterward.

"Is that what you're concerned about?"

"I just want to understand."

"He didn't let go by choice. I made him. That freak had me around the chest; he was using me to get into the chopper, I was certain of it, and he was so close. So I did what I had to do; I did what I thought was right." And though she did sound defensive, there was something else in her voice, too.

"Then why do you sound guilty?" he asked.

"Because you guys came back for me. You risked your lives, and to be honest, I'm not really sure you should have."

"We knew the risk and it was our choice to take it. You're a friend to Bernie and like a mother to Eve. And you're my friend, too, Gen. I don't know how it could've happened so quickly, but what you did made me realize it."

Gen didn't know what to say. She was touched, and more than a little surprised.

"I guess you didn't expect that," Niko observed.

She laughed. "No, not so soon. But neither did you, apparently."

"Sometimes things have a strange way of sneaking up on you."

"They do. But...are you sure that's what it is, that it's friendship and not something else?"

His brow bent. "What are you getting at?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but are you sure you aren't mistaking it for something else? Like...maybe you came back not because you realized I was your friend, but because you didn't want another death on your conscience?" She made a slight cringe, anticipating him to take that for an insult. Oddly enough though, he didn't look offended.

"I'm sure. I was concerned for more than just my conscience."

She smiled. It was that same delightful smile she'd given him in the chopper, the one that made his gut feel weird. "I grew on you."

"Just a little." He could've laughed at himself. Sure, only a little. It wasn't like he'd risked everything to bring her back. She'd grown on him a lot in a short time. There were things about her he had found himself getting drawn to, despite their differences. Those few but important things they shared in common; loss, suffering, being betrayed by people they had grown close to. Her stubborn, protective nature; annoying though it sometimes was, it was hard to pretend like he didn't understand it and harder not to admire it. And there were others things, but he couldn't think like this. He needed to focus on the bad things, not the good things. The bad things were safer.

Niko gave her a grave look. "Regardless, don't do anything like that again. Not for me."

Gen shook her head, still smiling. "We're all mixed up. I don't think I'm worth the risk, you don't think you're worth the risk, but we both think the other is worth the risk."

"Not for me, Gen," he repeated and with force this time. "I fucking mean it."

Gen noted the slight tone of anger in his voice, but she kept her patience. She didn't want to ruin the nice little moment they were having, considering they were few and far between as it was. "Let's not talk about this anymore. Let's go to the cafeteria. I don't know about you, but I'm really-"

"No. You are a woman of your word. We go nowhere until I have it." Keeping her word had always been an important thing to her. Niko was certain that if she gave it, she wouldn't be able to break it.

"I can't give you my word."

"You've given it before."

"This is different."

"Gen, I don't need your protection. For the hundredth time, I can take care of myself. Will you _please_ get that through your damn head?"

"You're asking me to be someone I'm not. I can't help wanting to look out for and protect my friends."

His face took on a cold expression. "And you are terrible at it. Stop wasting your time and focus on something you're good at, like being a bitch."

Gen stuck her hands on her hips and gave him the deepest frown. "What the hell is the matter with you, Niko? One minute you're calling me your friend, the next you're calling me a bitch. Are you bi-polar or something?"

Niko folded his arms and looked irritated by the remark, but ignored it all the same. "I'm still waiting."

This seemed to be something he needed to hear, so Gen gave the stubborn ass what he wanted. "Fine. I won't do anything like that for you again."

"You are giving me your word?"

"Yeah," she lied. _When hell freezes over_.

"I don't believe you."

_Damn it. When did he start reading minds? _"Well, what do you want me to say? You want my word, I gave it to you, but it's not good enough for you."

"No, not when you are _lying_ to me. For a woman who fights and argues about everything, you agreed too easily. I want you to mean it. If you can't, then I cannot be friends with you."

Gen studied him for a moment, calculating his expression, wondering if he was bluffing. But all she saw was a grim look. "Good God, you are actually serious. You're going to force me into this?"

"No. It's your choice."

"Some choice."

Niko didn't respond, only waited for her decision.

"Okay, Niko," she sighed. "You win."

"What do I get for winning?"

"My word. But just for the record, I hate you for this."

"No, you don't. You are irritated with me, but you will get over it."

"You just think you know everything, don't you?"

He smiled. "I have often been called a smartass."

* * *

After the group finished the junk food breakfast Connor and Bernie had liberated from the cafeteria vending machine, they left the hospital behind for Meadow Hills.

There was not much further to go; a few blocks and they would reach Roman's house. Eager though Niko was to reach his family, a horrible feeling of apprehension spread through him like a virus. Now that they were so close, the questions and fears and worries he'd tried to keep at the back of his mind surfaced with a vengeance. What if he found the house destroyed? What if all this time he'd been trying to reach them and they weren't even there? What if they'd been out in the city when the outbreak struck and they'd turned into freaks? What if they were dead? What would he do if they were dead?

The street they traveled on was free of debris, save for the garbage and sheets of old newspaper that swirled around in the cold November wind, and the few bits of crumbled stone, splintered wood, and twists of metal that had gotten blown over from the destroyed neighborhoods. Rubbish wasn't the only thing the wind carried. It blew up dirt and dust from the ground, tossing it into the faces of the five survivors. On both sides of the road, businesses were lined up and still intact, everything from a veterinary clinic to a deli. Most if not all had been broken into and looted.

Gen walked a pace behind Bernie with Eve and Connor ahead of them. Her face was lined with a frown. She felt strange, but it was a feeling she had known before when Cole had sent her and Niko out on a wild goose chase. _Eyes_, was the first thing that came to mind. _Eyes are following us_. But whose eyes were they?

The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Gen glanced over her shoulder. She caught movement down the street a ways. A shape, a shadow darting between two shops. It moved too fast for her to get a good look at it, but it justified her feeling. They were being stalked.

Calmly, Gen increased her stride to a brisk pace, passing the other three until she reached Niko's side. She glanced back for a moment, seeing no movement, then she set eyes on him. "We're being followed."

He looked at her, his brow knitting. "You're sure?"

"Yeah. I got a weird feeling a moment ago. When I looked back, I saw movement."

_It fucking figures_, Niko thought. _Not a day goes by without some kind of trouble._ "How many?" he asked.

"One."

"Human?"

"I couldn't tell. I only caught a glimpse before they moved between two buildings. Maybe we should find out who they are and what they want."

Niko considered this. "Yes, we should. I don't want to lead this person to our destination, no matter their intentions."

Gen nodded. "Right, so what's the plan?"

"We call them out," he said. "Once we are safely behind cover." Gen may have seen only one person, but that didn't mean they were alone. Or unarmed.

Cover was easy enough to find. Niko led the group into a small alleyway, where he was then attacked with a small arsenal of questions.

"What's the deal?" Connor asked. "Why are we moving off the street?"

"Did you see something?" Bernie.

"Was it the freaks?" Eve.

"Shouldn't we be...oh, I don't know, _running away_ instead of hiding?" Connor added.

"How many were there?" Bernie inquired.

Niko made a face. "We are being followed. That is all I know. Now shut up and stay back against this building."

Every last one of them did as he said without protest or anymore questions. Niko stepped to the mouth of the alleyway, keeping himself as hidden as possible behind the wall of the shop, his M-16 at the ready. Then he called out to their hidden stalker, "We know you are there! Come out!"

The street remained deserted.

_We ain't got time for this shit._ Niko grit his teeth. "This will not end well for you if I have to come find you! Show yourself!"

At last there was movement. A humanoid shape stepped from between the buildings down the street. The elevated railway above threw shadows against the person, but in the faint darkness, Niko saw glowing red eyes.

_Fantastic. It just had to be one of them._

He had no idea what to do. There seemed to be only one of them, but he could not lead this thing to his family. Yet killing it would likely bring more of them if they were around the area. Then there was the fact that the thing had been following them for God only knows how long. It could've tried attacking them any time it wanted, but it hadn't. Everything about this was wrong. And for all he knew, he was being played with, being made to see what really wasn't there; there could've been a horde where he saw only one.

The freak moved up the street with something akin to caution; slow-moving with his hands raised above his head. Then he spoke a single word, "Peace."

Niko recalled Travis telling them that some of the freaks in Broker could speak. He'd thought if he'd ever got a chance at hearing one, the freak might sound weird, have some kind of otherwordly accent or something, but the voice was normal as could be and the only accent it carried was a slight Alderney one. For some reason, that was more strange to him than if it had spoken with some alien dialect.

"Did it seriously just call for peace?" Gen asked.

"It did. Not that I believe it for a second."

"I don't know..." she said.

He gave her a short look of disbelief. "Gen, come on, even you aren't so stupid as to believe a word one of them says."

"And even you can admit it's strange that one of them would trail us. Maybe it wants something."

"Yes," Niko said. "It wants to rip us apart and feed on our blood."

"It would've done it already."

"Maybe, maybe not. I don't care." He came to a decision. He couldn't walk away from it, leaving it free to follow. It had to die, no matter what it brought upon them. "I will deal with this thing. Get ready to run."

He stepped out into the street, and faced the freak. It was standing in the middle of the street with its hands still raised up. Niko leveled his assault rifle on it. The freak understood the threat. Those strange red eyes widened, then the freak dropped to its knees and pleaded, "Peace!"

Its actions confused the man, caused him to hesitate for a moment. Why was it acting like this? Why did it plead for its life when it could easily kill him? Even in his hesitation, the freak could've taken the advantage and ripped him apart. And yet it kneeled there, begging. Was it some trick?

Niko unwittingly spoke, and was astonished by his own actions. "What do you want? Why are you following us?" He was certain he was dead as soon as the words left his mouth, yet he remained. The freak did as well, still kneeling there.

"You must deliver a message," the freak said. "To your kind dwelling at the place you call Meadows Park. Tell them three of us come. Representatives of Peace. We come when your sun has risen thrice. We come in peace, we come for peace. Not all of my kind wish to harm humans. Some seek co-existance."

"Why should I believe what you say? Your kind has done nothing but rip my kind apart every fucking chance it gets!"

"You are alive now," the freak said. "When you would not normally be, Niko."

He frowned at his name coming from the mouth of one of _them_. At first, he wondered how it knew, then he realized how. "Get the fuck out of my head, or I will put bullets in yours!"

The freak had the nerve to smile. "Peace. Will you be the one to end it before it begins?"

"It will be a cold day in hell before I believe you fucking parasites want peace."

"Yet you could kill me, and have not. Uncertainty clouds judgment. Your hesitation gives me opportunity. I could kill you, and have not. I offer peace."

The freak rose to its feet, and Niko backed off a few paces, keeping his M-16 trained on its head, ready to pull the trigger if the thing so much as twitched in his direction.

It had the sense to back away. "Deliver the message." And then it was gone, slipping off between the buildings.

Niko's companions were there, gathered behind him.

"It talked to you," Bernie said with amazement.

"What did it say?" Gen asked.

"It wants me to deliver a message," he said.

"To who?"

"People staying in Meadows Park."

"What was the message?" Bernie asked.

"They are coming to pay those people a visit. Supposedly, some of their kind want peace with ours."

"I find that hard to believe," Gen said.

"As do I."

"We should still deliver that message, though," she said. "If they're coming, those people need to be warned."

"Yes."

She smiled. "So, how does it feel to probably be the first human being to talk to one of them?"

"It was strange," Niko admitted, and a faint, dry smile curved his mouth. "I don't think I made a good impression on it."

The woman laughed. "You probably made a better impression than our president ever could have. When it comes right down to it, I'd much rather have a badass former hitman making the first impressions than a stuffy old guy in a suit. At least they'll know there's some humans out there who're more trouble than they're worth."

The man shook his head. "You are a strange person, Gen."

"Uh...a good kind of strange?"

"Maybe, maybe not. If I ever figure it out, I will let you know."

* * *

A small group of freaks forced the quintet to detour around and find another way into the Meadow Hills neighborhood. Quiet as they could manage, they hopped fences and ducked through backyards until they came to a street Niko informed them had a straight shot to his cousin's home. Unfortunately, it wasn't deserted.

Niko made a gesture for everyone to take cover behind a fence as three freaks came strolling up the street, speaking in their gibberish language. Once they passed by, Niko stuck his head out to look around the bushes obscuring his view of them. The trio turned onto another street. He checked the opposite direction and it too was clear.

"It's safe," he declared, rising from his position.

At least he had thought it was. The moment they stepped out from behind the fence, a fourth lunatic burst out from between two houses across the street and darted for them, his face twisted up in rage as incomprehensible screams erupted from his mouth. Stealth no longer mattered; the entire neighborhood must've heard the noise.

Three firearms were raised at the same moment, but it was Bernie who got the kill. His rifle thundered and the freak's head jerked back, a good chunk of it spraying through the air and raining blackened blood and bits of brain on the concrete. The body crumpled mere feet away from them.

No sooner had the shot been fired, the other three freaks they had seen a moment ago appeared at the end of the street where they'd turned the corner, and they weren't alone. Six more came around another corner. This wasn't a fight that would end in the group's favor.

Niko got a frustrated look. "Fuck this fucking shit."

Gen looked around for a solution as the group of freaks rushed forward. And she found one just in time. "You three stay here, and stay hidden," she said to the others, then looked at Niko. "Come with me. We're going to draw them off." At his doubtful look, she added, "Trust me."

"Okay. But I hope you know what the hell you're doing."

The woman checked the freaks' position, then bolted across the street with Niko hot on her heels. He turned back only once to fire off a few rounds to slow the freaks down. When he faced forward, he saw Gen climbing up into a tree lining the sidewalk. Climbing it like a monkey on speed.

This was her plan? "Oh, come on, you've got to be kidding me!" Nonetheless, he shouldered his weapon, jumped into the v-shaped trunk of the tree and hauled himself up among the branches.

By the time he made it to the midst of the tree, Gen had already found a perch, a sturdy limb that protruded out over the street and gave perfect line of sight to the freaks. She shot down as many as she could as they came on. Ridiculous though her plan had seemed, he now understood it. The height gave them a great advantage over the freaks; they were both safely out of reach and had the time to take the freaks down.

Niko found his own perch, right below hers. He got situated on it, pressing himself back against the thick trunk the limb birthed from so as not to get thrown off balance from his weapon's recoil. He aimed the assault rifle down at one of the freaks standing below him. It didn't move, simply stared at him. All at once, Niko felt a strange buzzing sensation in his head and his vision blurred. He had to shut his eyes to get his focus back. When he opened them again, he was no longer looking at a freak.

Kate McReary stared up at him, a sweet but sad smile on her lovely face. She was dressed in the clothes she had died in.

Niko's breath and heart seized up. He felt cold all over. He said her name aloud, but he wasn't aware of his own voice. Some small part of him knew this wasn't real, but she looked so real. Real enough to touch.

Small red stains blossomed on the woman's shirt, here and there; blood, released from the bullets that had killed her. He remembered where each one had struck her; he never forgot. Blood seeped from between her parted lips.

Her face changed, paled to a corpse pallor and contorted with anger. Then she spoke, condemned him, "_You did this to me. It was your fault_."

"No!" Niko shouted, unable to control it. "This isn't real." He shut his eyes against her, tried to collect himself, assured himself again that this wasn't real, but when he opened his eyes, she was still there.

"_You killed me_."

"It was supposed to be me, not you. I never meant for it to happen! _I didn't know it would happen_!"

"_You killed me_."

His eyes burned and a lump that felt the size of the moon lodged in his throat. He choked the words out around it, "Forgive me." He needed her forgiveness. "I'm so sorry. I wish it had been me!"

"_Right your wrong. You have a gun_."

A hand fell on his shoulder, shook him, and a voice yelled near his ear, "Hey! Are you okay?"

But he was dead to the world. It was just him and the woman he had once cared for. The woman his actions had put into an early grave.

Kate's white face softened with a tender look. "_You can bring me back_," she said. "_A life for a life. Make me live again, Niko. I want to live again_."

There was a loud bang that jolted him. Kate's head recoiled, a dark hole right between her eyes.

"No! _God_!" The words tore from his throat, sick with outrage and despair. His head whipped around. Sometime or another, Gen had made her way down to him. She stood on a lower branch, supporting her outstretched arms on the limb he straddled, the Glock in her hands.

"What did you do!?" he shouted at her, a tremor running along side the rage in his tone.

"Whatever you were seeing, it wasn't real," Gen said. And she had never seen him look so horrified. She reached for his shoulder, to offer some kind of comfort or reassurance.

He pushed her away, unable to help his thoughts. She'd killed her, forced him to watch her die again. Gen lost her footing. Flailing, she tried to grab hold of a branch.

The realization of what he'd done set in a little too late. Niko reached for the woman, got a hand on her arm for a second before she slipped from his grasp. She fell, striking a branch on her way down.

Two freaks remained below. The moment Gen struck the ground, they moved on her. Niko blasted one of them away, but that gave the second one enough time to get to her. The freak fell on top of her. His head dove for her throat. Gen jerked to one side and screamed when his teeth burrowed into that space between her neck and shoulder. Had she not moved in time, it would've torn her throat open.

Niko couldn't take the shot and risk the bullets going through the freak and into her. He hurried down a few branches, then jumped from the tree, landing a bit unsteadily. Once he had his balance, he delivered a powerful kick to the thing's ribs. The freak rolled over onto his back and Niko filled his head with lead.

He knelt beside his friend, staring with dismay at the hideous wound the freak had inflicted on her. He'd torn away a chunk of flesh and there was too much blood for comfort. To top it off, her other shoulder had gotten dislocated in the fall.

Gen stared up at him, wordlessly, another one of those expressions he couldn't read on her face. He didn't blame her if she never spoke to him again.

Niko glanced around and called for Bernie.

He and the others came from behind a house, hurrying over.

"Oh, my God," Bernie gasped as Eve rushed forward and fell to her knees beside her replacement mother.

"You're hurt!" the girl cried, her face lined with concern and fear.

"I'm okay," Gen assured her. "Just a little bite."

"But there's so much blood..."

"What the hell happened!?" Connor demanded to know.

"Give me something to stop the bleeding," Niko said.

Eve was the one to provide him with what he needed. From her backpack, she retrieved a shirt and handed it over. He bunched it and pressed it to the wound, firmly. The woman cried out in agony.

"Bernie, her other shoulder is dislocated. Can you fix it?"

"I can certainly try. Scootch over, sweetie," he said, nudging the girl.

Eve made room for him. Bernie got on his knees and took Gen's arm in his hand, rotating it around a bit. He leaned over her, his free hand pressed below her shoulder. With a firm yank on her arm, he was able to get the joint back into the socket.

"Ahh!" Gen yelled at him. "You could've warned me you were going to do it first!"

Bernie smiled. "It would have hurt a lot more if you had expected it, hon. Can you move it?"

Gen tested it by giving him a harmless punch to the chest. The shoulder throbbed like hell, but at least her arm worked.

Bernie looked over at Niko. "The wound?"

The man lifted the shirt away from it, frowned, and shook his head. "I don't know."

"Move out of the way. Let Dr. Bernie have a look."

Niko gave him his spot, and glanced around the street to make sure they were still alone. They were in the clear for now.

"Oh, dear," Bernie said as he examined the wound.

"Is it bad?"

"Well, it's not pretty."

"That's not what I asked," Niko snapped at him.

"The bleeding is bad, but I don't think it's serious," Bernie said. "The wound needs suturing, but we are far away from the tools we need."

"No, we're not. We are only steps away from Roman's house. Come on." He reached down to help Gen up, surprised when she didn't shy away from him as he'd expected her to do after he'd nearly gotten her killed. Once she was on her feet, he took her hand and pressed it over the shirt covering her wound.

"Keep pressure on it."

She made no reply, but kept her hand in place. He was not surprised with the silent treatment.

Bernie kept at her side as Niko lead them all off onto the street they had been trying to make their way to before the freaks had rudely interrupted. Connor scooped up Gen's Glock from the ground and handed it over to her.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Your shoulder is half eaten and the other one was dislocated, and nothing happened?"

"That's what I said."

"I'm not buying it."

Gen sighed. "I saw my dead sister," she confessed. "It freaked me out. I fell out of the tree. He saved my life. That's what happened." It was half true. She had seen Giselle, an extension cord wrapped around her bruised neck. She had accused her of giving up on finding her rapist, accused her of not doing enough, not loving her and caring enough to keep seeking the justice she deserved. Painful as it was, Gen had been more concerned for her friend than the accusations of some false phantom. But the rest she told Connor was a lie, a lie for a friend who must've seen something just as terrible.

"Then why are you giving him the old silent treatment?"

"Stop with the interrogation, Connor," Bernie said. "She's been through enough."

"Fine. But you shouldn't be protecting that asshole if he did something."

Gen frowned. "Go away."

Connor rolled his eyes and picked up his pace, joining Eve's side.

"Are you protecting him?" Bernie asked when they were alone.

"He saw something. It really freaked him out. He was white as a sheet, yelling things that sounded like guilt and regrets. He said a name."

Bernie got a sad look. "Kate."

"Yeah. You heard it?"

"No, just a guess. I imagine since these freaks can get inside our heads, they will weaponize our weaknesses. You remember when I told you he lost someone he cared for? It was her."

"Oh. Girlfriend?"

"No, just good friends, but you only had to look at the way he looked at her to know he wanted more."

"She didn't?"

"It was complicated; everything is with Niko. She liked him in that same way, but she didn't want to get involved with someone with his lifestyle."

"So, this was way back in the day when he was playing hitman?"

"Yes."

"So, what happened to this woman?" Gen wanted to understand, but she knew she would never get the details out of Niko; as the man had told her once, there were some things people could talk about and some things they couldn't, and this seemed like one of those things he couldn't get into. Bernie, however, seemed to enjoy talking.

"She was murdered, gunned down at his cousin's wedding by a man he worked for, a man who believed Niko had double-crossed him."

"Did he?"

"He made a decision he thought was best," Bernie sighed. "But it had such terrible consequences. The man was there to kill Niko, but he got her instead."

In horror, Gen realized something. "I shot the lunatic that was messing with him. He was staring right at it when he was yelling all that stuff. I knew what it was doing, but I wasn't thinking about what he must've been seeing there. Dear God, Bernie, did I make him watch her die all over again?" It was no small wonder the man had flipped out.

"You did what you had to do. If he doesn't understand that now, he will."

They finally reached the place, a three-story, traditional German-style home. As charming as it looked, it was recycled; every house on the block was an exact match. The yard was small and cluttered with a child's toys. A girl, Gen guessed, by all the bright pink and purple she saw, and she was likely no older than five. There was a towering tree in the middle of the yard, complete with a swing.

Niko breezed up the walk, climbed the porch steps, and stopped before the door. He had to resist an urge to burst through it in his eagerness. Niko had given Roman a shotgun a few years ago for security purposes. Such an unexpected and aggressive action as busting through the front door would likely make him freak and shoot if he was armed with it. He hadn't come all this way just to die at the hands of his own relative.

He took his eagerness out on the doorbell instead and called, "Roman? Mallorie? It's me. It's-"

The door opened, and Roman stood there, leaning on a crutch with his right leg in a cast. He looked like he had aged considerably in the time that had passed. His face was drawn and haggard, there were dark circles around his eyes, he seemed to have dropped a few pounds, and had a growth of beard coming in. Nevertheless, Niko had never been so happy to see anyone in his life.

Without a word, he embraced his cousin, and they stood there like that in the threshold for the longest time.

"Jesus, Niko," Roman sobbed. "I never thought I would see your face again! You were in a coma, we thought you might have died! Or went nuts, or was trapped behind the Algonquin walls with no way to reach us! We didn't know what to think..."

He went on like that for a while. Niko let him, and as he continued to hug the man, he noticed the other two standing in the living room.

Jacob and Brucie, the former armed with an AK and the latter with a shotgun. It was as Bernie had assured him; his friends had come to protect his family. He should have never doubted it.

Brucie nudged the Jamaican with an elbow. "What did I say, man? What did I fucking tell you? Never doubt. Our boy NB is fucking _invincible_!"

"Me wicked glad to see ya, star. Ya take de long way?" Jacob greeted Niko, smiling.

"You have no idea, man," Niko said. "The hell I've been through to get here..."

Roman finally held him back. "But you are here and you are alive. We are whole now. That is all that matters." He pulled Niko inside off the stoop, hugged Bernie, and greeted the strangers.

"Where is Mallorie?" Niko asked.

"I'm right here," came a voice from the stairs. The small woman was all smiles as she hustled down the stairs to give him a big hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. We've been worried sick about you, not knowing anything." She leaned back a bit to kiss him on the cheek a few times. "Katie is having her nap, but she's going to be so excited to see you when she wakes up. She's been asking about you non-stop."

"I have missed her, too. All of you. I didn't know if I would ever see any of you again," he admitted. He moved from Mallorie to Jacob to greet the man with a bro hug. "I was almost sure you were dead. A military jet destroyed your entire neighborhood."

"Me was at de Homebrew when de badness started. I and Badman and some real rude boys from de crew. We tried a protect de neighborhood, seen?" Jacob's face took on a sorrowful expression. "But de crazy ones got dem. Badman and de rest. Nuttin I and I could do."

Niko put a hand on his shoulder. "Shit, Jacob. I'm so sorry."

"I and I come right over fi Roman's. Bredren gotta stick together in times of sufferation, ya know."

"Thank you, my friend," Niko said. "For looking out for them." He glanced at Brucie. "Both of you."

"It nuttin," Jacob said. "Ya'd do de same fa I, star."

"Like the man said," Brucie replied. "We gotta stick together and shit, 'cause when we do, those fucking weirdos out there ain't got shit on us. We're the fucking Untouchables, man! Three unstoppable, badass warriors! I mean, shit! You should've seen me and Jacob in action the other day. Three of those weird-ass people got close to the house. We drew them off and blasted those fuckers back to hell!"

"Ya learn a lot fightin long side others," Jacob said. "Him scream like a woman."

"It wasn't like that!" the muscle-bound man protested. "That one weirdo came out of nowhere! Right in my fucking face!"

"And it helped you get in touch with your feminine side?" Niko teased.

"Hey, the Bruce Man is all _male_. Masculinity secretes from these pores."

"Are you sure that ain't the juice?"

Brucie stared at him for a moment, then a wide grin split his face and he slung a heavy arm around Niko's shoulders. "Shit, I've missed you, man! It's like old times again."

"Niko," Roman said. "Aren't you going to introduce us to your new friends?"

"What?"

Roman made a gesture at the three strangers, who were gracious enough to keep out of the way of the reunion. With all that was going on, Niko had forgotten they were there.

"Shit, sorry." He nudged the former cop front and center. "This is Gen, the woman who has been driving me crazy for the past week. But she has done much to get me here. Too much."

Gen offered an awkward smile and rose a hand a little, the other still keeping a firm press on her shoulder wound. "Hi."

Niko presented the girl next. "The sweet, little one here is Eve." Then he jerked a thumb over a shoulder. "And Connor."

Through watching Niko interact with his family and friends, the others needed no introductions.

"Are you okay?" Mallorie asked Gen. "Your shoulder...doesn't look good."

"It looks worse than it is," she said.

"It needs to be seen to," Niko said. "Before you bleed out or the wound festers."

"I'm on it," Bernie said. "Mallorie, can you help me?"

"Of course."

The two ushered the injured woman into the kitchen. Bernie nudged her into a chair at the dining room table and ticked off items he was going to need to Mallorie. The small woman hurried off to retrieve what she could.

In the living room, Niko sat down with his cousin and friends. Eve curled up next to him, wary of the strangers.

"Does my cousin have a little admirer?" Roman asked, grinning.

"It would seem so."

"You are strangely good with children, Niko. I will never understand why you never got around to having any of your own."

"Roman, the world has gone to shit, and your concern is me being childless?" He laughed. "I think you need to get your priorities straight."

"Hey, I'm just saying!"

Niko changed the subject. "What happened to your leg?"

"It got busted in the wreck."

A look of deep guilt and regret lined Niko's face. "God, I'm a fucking idiot. I'm sorry, Roman. I could have killed you."

"What are you talking about, cousin?"

"I was driving the night of the accident. Drunk." He looked confused. "Wasn't I?"

"The doctor told us you might have amnesia from that head injury. No, you weren't driving. We took a cab home. It was hit head on by a fucking garbage truck. The driver fell asleep at the wheel or something, I don't know."

Well, that was a heavy load off his conscience.

"So, now that we are all together, what the hell are we going to do?" Roman asked.

"We are going to find a way out of this city."

"And if we do, what then? Where are we going to go?"

Niko sighed. "I don't know. The mountains? The countryside? Anywhere that isn't a city. That's where all these freaks are. I think we should be safe if we steer clear of populated places."

"Yes, but in the mountains and countryside there is no food or water or shelter," Roman pointed out. "And winter will come soon. If we don't freeze to death, we will starve."

"And that's if we don't go fucking Donner party on each other first," Brucie added with a shudder. "That's just fucking sick, man. I don't even want to think about it."

"Dey make good points, bredda," Jacob said.

"We cannot stay here," Niko said. "The freaks were bad enough before, but now that they can fuck with our heads..." He shook his own. "One did it to me already, and I do not want to go through that again. That shit...it will drive me insane. We have to leave."

"How, Niko?" Roman replied. "We don't have a way to get to the mainland."

"Maybe we might be able to locate a boat or something. I don't know yet. But with your leg, we are not going anywhere anytime soon. We have time to find a way."

* * *

**A/N:**

Little Jacob has always been one of my favorite IV characters, but his dialogue is hard as hell to write. I'm unfamiliar with Jamaican Patois, but am learning what I can off three dictionaries I found on the net so that I might have LJ as comprehensible and in-character as possible. That being said, if any readers are familiar with the dialect and notice anything wrong or misused in his dialogue, please let me know.


	15. Chapter 15: Unprepared

**Chapter Fifteen: Unprepared**

* * *

"**I** guess I should get to the park and deliver that message," said Niko. "Bernie, when you're done playing doctor, I want you to come with me."

"Of course, hon."

"You just got here, cousin," Roman protested. "And now you are leaving?"

"We will not be gone long."

"What is this about?"

"I will explain when we get back. I want to get this out of the way so we can focus on _our_ problems."

Bernie finished the last stitch on Gen's shoulder, then examined his work. He wasn't happy with it, but he had done his best. "Don't move your shoulder around too much," he told her. "Those stitches are crude. Too much movement will pull them out, and you are already at high risk for an infection."

"Thanks, Bern. Mind if I tag along with you guys?"

"Yes," said Niko. "You're in no condition-"

"You're just going across the street."

"I know you want to help, but you have done enough. Take a break, get some rest. I'm sure you could use it."

"I'm sure we _all_ could."

"We are not the ones who almost died _again_." He looked uneasy, guilt-ridden. "I'm sorry, Gen."

"No apologies," she insisted.

"I almost got you killed. How are you not holding this over me?"

Gen feigned a puzzled look. "You did? I don't remember that. All I remember is you getting freaked and me shooting the freak that was messing with you." She shrugged the shoulder that wasn't bitten. "You're not to blame for your reaction."

Her uncharacteristic lack to blame and ease to forgive caused a conflict of feelings; confusion, benevolent affection, fear, helplessness. Together, they forced him to provoke a fight. "I don't understand you. You rip my head off for the smallest things and forgive me for the things you shouldn't. You make no fucking sense!"

Gen gaped in disbelief. "_Me_? What about _you_? You say I'm your friend, then you start yelling at me for no reason. If that makes sense to you, you need some damn therapy!"

And they went on and on. _And on and on_. Several moments of shouting and getting in each other's face, oblivious to the fact that everyone was staring.

"Wow," Mallorie said to Bernie. "That escalated fast."

"It's been like this from day one, sweetie. I suppose everyone should just get used to it. I have."

"Uuugh!" Gen was yelling. "Don't you have somewhere to go!?"

"Yes," Niko snapped. "And the sooner I am away from you, the better!"

"Good!"

"Great!" The man stormed off for the door. "Bernie, come on."

"Right behind you, hon," Bernie answered, collecting his rifle from the table.

"Be careful, Niko," Roman said. "I don't want to lose you again."

His cousin only nodded.

Connor stood from an arm chair. "I'm coming, too." He saw on Niko's face that he was going to object, as usual, and possibly yell some more, as usual. Connor didn't let him. "Look, I don't belong here. I'm not welcome. You've made that clear enough, and I'm sick of being the only one forced to be useless because you have fucking trust issues. If there's people in the park, I'd rather stay with them."

"Connor, you-" Gen started, but Niko cut her off.

"You know what, that's fine with me. One less problem I have to deal with it." The man left through the door, Bernie following.

Connor looked at Gen. "You know, you should think about coming with me...before he gets you killed."

The woman said nothing, only looked at him.

He shook his head, laughing. "Okay. You know, he's right about one thing. You _don't_ make any fucking sense, but that's probably because you don't have any in the first place."

With that, Connor stepped through the door, closing it behind him.

Bernie and Niko waited for him at the end of the street. It was empty and silent, as was the park across from it. The gates that opened up to it had been shut and there was a length of chain and a lock keeping it that way, perhaps in an effort to put whatever obstacle they could between them and the freaks should they try to storm the place; the gate and fence would slow them down _some_.

As the three men made their way across the street, Bernie noticed the sudden change in Niko's temperament. It was strange, considering not five minutes ago he was at Gen's throat. Whatever anger there had been then, it was gone now, as easily as flipping a switch.

And Bernie realized why. "You caused that fight on purpose!"

Niko made an effort to look confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, yes you do. And I know why you are doing it. It isn't right, hon. You can't mess with her head like this. It might do more damage than you want it to do."

"There is no other way to handle it. One moment I want to strangle her, the next I'm risking everything to save her life. It's getting out of hand. This needs to be controlled."

They reached the fence, climbed over it, and made their way across the park.

"There are some things that cannot be controlled, hon," Bernie said. "But there are _right_ ways of dealing with it. Maybe it's time to come clean about the heist. You never know, she may have moved on from it or she may decide it wasn't you."

"Or she may decide it was and will want revenge for it. And I will have no choice but to let her have it. I will not be forced to take her life. I _can't_." He looked so utterly frustrated. "I wish I'd never met that woman."

"Hey," Connor said. "I'm not exactly sure what you guys are talking about, but it seems like the best solution is to part ways. You should talk her into joining the people here."

"No," Bernie protested. "That's-"

"Maybe that's for the best," Niko said.

"You don't mean that!"

Niko said nothing. He didn't need to; the look of grim finality on his face said everything.

The recreation center, where these people could only have taken shelter, was a large one-story, white building that sat at the heart of the park. It faced dead fountains, a few artistic statues of made-up symbolic figures, and the great world globe structure surrounded by its quiet, sparkling pool. Someone had decided that globe would make for a better laundry line than a park ornament. Clothes and blankets draped the steel along the bottom, fluttering and flapping in the wind. Aside from the rustling whisper of the park's trees, it was the only sound.

The trio stopped before the center's metal doors.

"Uh...should we knock?" Connor asked.

"No, let's just burst in and get ourselves _shot_," Niko replied. He regarded the man with a fiendish smile. "You can go first."

Connor gave a sarcastic laugh. "And make your day? I don't think so." He stepped between Niko and Bernie and banged on the door with a fist. "Yo! Anyone home!?"

There was a moment of silence, then the doors screeched open. Two enormous men of similar appearance stood there, pointing their assault rifles at them. They were packed with so much muscle they would have made Brucie look like a weak child in comparison.

"Who the fuck are you, and what do you want?" one of them demanded.

Niko intended to take a step forward, but all he could manage was a twitch before both guns turned on him. He held his hands up a bit in a pacific gesture. "Relax. I need to speak with whoever is in charge here. I have a message."

One of the two took a step and was standing over Niko like Godzilla; the guy was as tall as he was huge. "You got a message? Give it to us and we'll deliver it for you."

Niko had to dip his head back to look up at him. "I would rather make sure it gets delivered myself. It's important."

"If it's important, then it ain't gonna matter whose mouth it comes from."

Why did everyone he crossed paths with _insist_ on making things difficult for him? "Fine. We came across one of those freaks earlier. It spoke to me, told me to deliver a message to your people-"

The two men didn't let him finish. They boomed with laughter. Somehow, Niko expected this, though that did nothing to keep it from yanking on his nerves.

"Let me get this straight," Godzilla said. "You want us to believe one of those things made contact with you and you're still here to tell the tale? What do you take us for, idiots?"

"I don't know," Niko responded with a sharp tone. "Should I?"

The large man's face twisted up. "Oh, the tiny bastard's got a smart mouth." He leaned over Niko like a tilting skyscraper. "You just fucking watch it."

Niko was forced to rein himself in. He did not want a fight with these men, as they looked like they could easily pound him into the ground and have him in his grave at the same time, assault rifle or no assault rifle. He didn't even want to think about what they'd do to Bernie. "I know how it sounds, but it happened, and it would be in your best interest to listen to what I have to say."

The two leviathan men exchanged a glance. Godzilla looked down at Niko and shrugged. "All right, so go."

"Three of them will be arriving here in three days. I assume at sunrise. They claimed to want peace, though I can't say why they want to start with your people."

He expected more laughter, but all he got were angry looks.

"Oh, they want peace, do they?" Godzilla growled. "I don't know who the hell you are, but I think it's time you and your two little boyfriends high-tail it the fuck out of here. We ain't falling for whatever trick you're trying to pull on us."

"It ain't a trick..." Niko sighed, a heavy sound of exasperation. "Look, believe it or don't. It's your call. They may come, they may not. If they do, it may only be three of them, or it may be three hundred. They may want peace, or they may be coming to kill off your people. If I was you, I would start preparing for them regardless."

And Niko washed his hands of it; he had done what was asked of him and wanted nothing more to do with it.

He and Bernie got a few steps away when Godzilla called to them, "All right, hold on! Maybe..." He grimaced. "Come on, I'll take you to the big man. He'll probably think I'm fucking nuts if he hears this from me."

* * *

Mallorie made noise in the kitchen as she searched through a cabinet. "Would you like coffee or tea?" she asked Gen, who was sitting at the dining room table.

"You have heat to make it?"

"We have what Roman likes to call the 'king of grills'. It runs on propane and it has a side burner to cook on. It's out back."

"You actually go outside to use it when those freaks are running around?"

"Yeah. Our fence is high, so no one can see in the backyard, and we only heat up things on it so it doesn't smoke. Those freaks don't come around here that often, anyway. Brucie said most of them are at the airport."

"How does he know?" Gen asked, curious.

"He went by that way when he was trying to get here. He saw the Mother there, too."

"He's lucky he made it here in one piece."

Mallorie found a pot and sat it on the table to empty a few bottles of water into it, leaning over a bit as she did so. "Just between you and me," she said with low tones. "I'm surprised he did. Brucie is a little aggressive...and loud."

"I noticed," Gen replied with a grin. "It's kind of hard not to."

The Puerto Rican woman chuckled. "So, what will you have?"

"Tea. It's my favorite."

Mallorie smiled. "Mine, too. I could never stand coffee. Too bitter for me, but the boys drink it like it runs from a tap."

She headed through the kitchen's back door with the pot, Gen following to lend a hand.

"You know, you should be resting," Mallorie said, sitting the water-filled pot on the grill's side burner. "That was a pretty bad injury you took."

"I'm okay. I'm not the sitting around type, anyway."

"Really? Well, you got one thing in common with Niko, at least. He's the same way, always has to be on the move or doing something. He has always said he wants a normal life, but between you and me, I think he would get bored with it quick or go stir crazy."

"It hasn't been normal? I mean, before all this shit happened."

Mallorie shrugged. "It was more normal than it _was._ He wasn't getting into trouble at least, and he used to get into a _lot_ of trouble; breaking every law known to man, getting involved with bad people."

Gen nodded. "Yeah, Bernie spilled the beans about his, uh...criminal activity."

"Well, he put all of that behind him, but it didn't push him forward. It's been four years, but a stagnant four years."

"Weird for a guy who can't sit still."

"Oh, he was always on the move, it's just that he wasn't going anywhere. You know?"

Gen nodded. "Yeah, I think I get it. I imagine it must've been really hard for him to adjust to a normal way of life when all he's known is action. Probably didn't know what to do with himself."

"Roman has always been pushing him to settle down and have a family, to find the happiness we did. He even tried fixing him up a few times, but Niko couldn't connect with anyone. I don't think he even tried, to be honest. Probably just humoring Roman so he'd quit pestering him."

"Bernie told me he lost someone he had cared about. It's really hard to get over something like that, and it only makes it a hundred times harder when you blame yourself for it."

Mallorie studied her for a moment. "That sounds like experience talking."

Gen frowned. "Well...I lost someone four years ago, too. My fiancé."

"Ay, Dios mío." Mallorie squeezed her arm out of sympathy. "I'm so sorry. What happened...if you don't mind me asking?"

"He was killed at a bank robbery. He was a cop, like me. Different units, though. That was a horrible day for a lot of people. There were some thirty officers involved in the shootout with the perps and only three of them survived their injuries. Whoever the perps were, they got away with a lot of cash and a lot of deaths."

"The police couldn't find them?"

"No, but it wasn't from lack of trying. That investigation was alive and kicking up until the Mothers came to town. Even the FIB got involved, and they're real bloodhounds when it comes to sniffing out bank robbers. I even started my own investigation into it, but every trail was a dead end."

"But you were able to move on, despite them getting away with it?"

"I was an angry mess for a while, but I learned a long time ago that sometimes you can do everything in your power and it's still not enough. It's just one of the many things that sucks about life. You can accept it and let go or hang on to it until it ruins you. He would've wanted me to let go and move on with my life."

"Sweetie, you seriously need to sit down and talk to Niko about shit like this. He could learn a thing or two."

Gen snorted. "Only if I beat the lesson into his hard head. Speaking doesn't get through."

Mallorie chuckled. "So, how did you two meet, anyway?"

"In the hospital. I got shot in the head..." Gen rubbed the fresh scar on her forehead where the bullet had gone through. "Was in a coma for two weeks. I woke up to find the hospital empty and bodies of patients and doctors alike torn apart in the hallways. I thought I was alone, but I searched anyway, hoping to find someone...and that's how I found him."

"I can't even imagine how scary it must've been for both of you. To wake up only to find the city destroyed, and all those freaks on the streets. I'm glad you both didn't have to go through that alone."

"I did for a short while. When we left the hospital, we got chased by two freaks..." She went on to explain about their escape through the debris, Niko injuring himself in a fall, and her eventually drugging him before he got himself killed.

Mallorie stopped her there with a laugh. "Dios mío! You _drugged _him for three days?"

Gen looked sheepish. "Hey, in my defense, I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. He was in bad condition, but he's stubborn as hell and won't listen to reason. All he was thinking about was getting to you guys, and he would've killed himself to do it. I was just trying to-"

"Look out for him," Mallorie finished for her. "But he was a stranger to you."

"Yeah. I don't know..." She bent down at the side of the grill to turn the propane nozzle on. "I guess I kind of admired that, how far he was willing to go for all of you. And I guess I felt sorry for him, too. I wanted him to find you guys, but he couldn't do that dead."

"So, I assume he found out about you drugging him."

"Yeah, blew a fuse and left me there in that apartment. Not that it mattered. By a stroke of luck or fate, or...something, we crossed paths again the very next day. At his apartment building, of all places." She shrugged. "Been driving each other nuts ever since."

"That's really weird. Algonquin is huge, but both of you were drawn to the same place?" Mallorie got a knowing look. "I think the universe or fate is trying to tell you something."

"Yeah, something like 'I want you two to kill each other.' I don't know if you noticed or not, Mallorie, but we don't exactly get along well."

"But when you were yelling at him earlier you said he calls you a friend. Believe me, girl, he doesn't make friends with people he doesn't like."

"Well, I guess that's something you need to ask him about. He sure as hell doesn't treat me like any friend."

"He's a hard man to understand sometimes, but it's not hard to see that you _seriously_ confuse him. Be patient with him." Mallorie smiled. "He seems to like you and you seem to like him."

Gen looked amused. "You got that from all the yelling, did you?"

"No, from his concern for your well-being and from the way you just _look_ at him."

"I don't-" Gen started to protest, but got interrupted.

From inside the house came the sound of someone knocking on the front door.

"Who the hell could _that_ be? I don't have anymore missing relatives," Roman said as he tried to rise from the couch, using his crutch.

Brucie put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. "Relax, man. I got it."

The muscle-bound man swaggered to the door and pulled it open. Six freaks stood there, three on the porch and three on the steps. "Holy fuck!" Brucie fumbled with his shotgun, but only got it half-raised when a grey, veined hand shot out around his throat. Brucie tried to break the thing's grip, but its strength outmatched his.

"Rasclot!" Jacob cursed.

He and Gen raced to Brucie's rescue just as the freak spoke, "Peace. We have not come to cause harm." It released the man.

Brucie backed up, rubbing his throat. "Fucking freak tried to strangle me! _Me_! No one puts hands on this body unless it's a hot bitch with big tits!" He brought up his shotgun, intending to blast the thing's head off.

Gen put a hand on his shoulder to still him. "Hold on."

Brucie gaped at her. "...It's one of them! Shit, it's a _lot_ of them!"

"I know, but we've met this one before. Or Niko did. It talked to him."

"Wha...?"

Gen stepped in front of Brucie, facing the freak. "Why are you here?"

"We must make peace now. I thought there was time, but there is not. She will come soon, and she will come with many."

* * *

After having their weapons confiscated for 'safety reasons', Godzilla led them through the recreation center. There were many people milling about, engaged in some task or chore. There was not a soul who stood idly, though some looked up from their business to stare at the three strangers.

Niko noted their numbers, much larger than Cole's group had been. There had to be thirty to forty people just in the great lobby they passed through.

Godzilla led them through a door into another room where childish laughter rang out and echoed. There was a large pool here, though it was drained now and served as a kind of playroom for the children. The little ones ran about in it, chasing each other, bouncing balls off the pool interior, playing with toys, having fun and being carefree as kids should. The children in Purgatory hadn't been like this. They had been frightened, grim-faced; they had been children, but aged beyond childhood.

Niko decided that was Cole's fault, more than situation's. The man hadn't been much of a leader, more of a tyrant who forced people to do what he wanted. Children were sponges, soaking up everything around them, so it was no surprise they had been as grim as the adults. He wondered if those people were still alive.

They exited the pool room into a long hallway. Godzilla stopped at a door and pounded on it.

"Come on in!" a cheerful voice called.

Godzilla pushed the door open and stepped inside. It was a plain room, furnished with a desk and three chairs, one behind the desk and two in front of it. There was a man occupying the chair behind it. Middle-aged, balding, heavy-set, and a soft, round face that gave him a friendly bearing. It was a face Niko had seen before, but he couldn't place a name to it or remember where he'd seen it. The man was slouched back in his chair, feet propped up on the desk. There was a black cat curled up on his lap, the man stroking its fur as he regarded the strangers.

"These three came bearing a message," Godzilla said. "I didn't believe a word of it, but thought it best to send them to you, anyway."

"Fine, fine. I'll take it from here, then. You can return to your post."

Godzilla hesitated. "You sure? We don't know what they're capable of; you shouldn't be left alone with them."

"I assume you've brought them to me unarmed?"

"Of course."

"Then I'm sure. Go on now. Gus must be pacing up a storm without his big brother around."

Godzilla cracked a smile and exited, shutting the door behind him.

The man put his feet on the floor and lifted the cat from his lap. It meowed at having its nap disturbed. He sat it on the desk, then made a gesture at the chairs in front of it. "Please, make yourselves at home."

Bernie and Connor took the seats, Niko standing between them. The cat stretched on the desk, yawned, then sat near the ledge, regarding the three men with feline scrutiny.

"So," the man said, leaning forward and clasping his hands in front of him. "What's this message you've risked the dangerous streets to deliver? It must be important."

"It's going to sound insane, but...one of those freaks spoke to me not long ago," Niko said. "It told me to deliver this message. Three of them are coming here in three days. It claimed not all of their kind want to harm us. Some want to co-exist, make peace."

The man's soft face produced a frown. "I...see."

"You don't believe a word I'm telling you." Niko was not surprised.

"Actually, I do. I can't see any reason why you would risk the streets just to come here and make up a story. What I find hard to believe is that any of them want peace."

"Maybe they do," Niko said. Now that he thought about it, nothing else seemed to make any sense. If they'd wanted to kill these people, then they wouldn't have asked him to deliver a message in the first place, as it would warn them. Still, he was thinking from a human standpoint, and whether it was peace they were after or something else, the situation still didn't feel right. There was a catch somewhere, he was sure of it.

The man studied him for a moment. "You buy it?"

"Does it really matter what I think? They are coming here for you and your people, not me."

"All the same, I'd like to hear your opinion."

Niko shrugged. "I'm not sure. Having me deliver this message is just warning you of their arrival. But we don't know how these things think. They may come with three to make peace, or they may come with three hundred to make war."

* * *

"She?" Gen asked, frowning. "Your...Mother?"

"Yes," the freak said. "There are many on your planet, and many more beyond it. That is why we have come."

"What you mean?"

"Long ago, before your people settled here, something was built under this island, under the place you call Meadows Park. A great device, a way to communicate with the Mothers beyond this planet. She comes for this device."

"She wants to call the others here."

"Yes. To prepare for war."

"With us?" Gen asked. "Why? There aren't many of us left. And don't you need us for our blood?"

"Not with your kind. Their enemies. The Mothers were driven from their home world - _our_ home world. Our planet was at war with a neighboring planet. The Mothers used the lesser races of our world to birth the soldiers they needed for that war. The lesser races were many and more, and they possessed a power they did not know they had; the Mothers could raise a mighty force. But there were enemy spies among them, disguised. They engineered and spread a pestilence that killed off the lesser races before the Mothers were done growing their army. With no weapon or defense against the enemy, they were forced to leave our world, to search for a hospitable planet with the resources they needed, and they came upon your Earth."

"Resources? Meaning us, as hosts for their army?" Gen asked.

"Yes."

"We assumed you were just their children, but you're their soldiers."

"Correct. We are nothing but weapons to them. We are a part of them as you are a part of your progenitors, but unlike your kind, we must take hosts for the entirety of our life cycle to survive. We possess an ability to manipulate other organisms, to create a vessel we can survive in and use."

"You just need the materials, something to work with. Like a painter needs a canvas or a carpenter needs wood."

The freak looked pleased that she understood. "Precisely. The lesser races proved to be not only the perfect 'materials', but they already possessed a powerful weapon useful for the war. The enemies fought not just with physical weapons, but also with their minds, so only more powerful minds would defeat them. There was great power that lie unused in the brains of the lesser races; they had not reached the point in their evolution to use it, to know it was even there."

"But when you guys took them as hosts, you knew and you _could_ use it."

"Yes, in our advanced stages of growth. Your species is the same. Your brains are capable of exceptional ability, but you have only evolved enough to use a small percentage of it, to handle a small percentage."

Gen laughed. "Great. So, we might have been able to stop this whole invasion if we'd only evolved a bit quicker?"

"Yes, but we can help you stop them now. We need only to form this alliance with your people. We six are in the advanced stages of our growth. We can use the power that lies in the minds of our hosts. That power combined with your human weaponry can stop her and the ones she brings."

"What about the other one, the other Mother that's here?" Gen asked. "Do we have to worry about her bringing an army, too?"

"No, there is no call for it. The Mother here believes she only faces your kind. She does not know we intend to help you."

"Are you sure? I would think when your kind has all this 'brain power' to use, she would know what you're planning."

"Not when she cannot reach our minds. We have blocked her out."

"You can do that?"

"We are capable of many extraordinary things."

And then there was silence.

"Shit, man," Brucie broke it. "It just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I feel like I'm living in a fucking science fiction movie, only without the hot space chicks."

"So, about this 'communication device', how exactly did it get here?" Gen asked. "We were told your Mothers crash-landed in Antarctica, got buried under the ice for a long time, then our people came along and woke them up."

"The Mothers fled our home world in the midst of a battle. They were hunted by their enemies. Some were killed, others escaped. One ship fled here. It had taken damage from the enemy during escape, and moreso when it entered your atmosphere. It crashed into your ice continent, as you were told. They could not make contact with the others, due to the extensive damage the ship had taken. A new communication device had to be built, but they needed energy to power it. Your planet proved to be a viable source. Two left to build the device while the others remained in restoration pods, healing their minds from the battle. They built it where the energies were strongest. Here."

"They built it right under our noses?"

"As I mentioned earlier, it was long ago, before your people settled here. They built it underground, deep to keep it safe from damage, environmental or otherwise. But the two who built it never returned. It is unknown why, but the others presume they are dead. They have tried communicating with them 'telepathically', and without success."

"Hold up. If you freaks can all make phone calls with your brains, what's the point of the device?" Brucie asked.

The freak smiled. "We can only reach so far."

"As in only planet-wide," Gen guessed.

"Correct." The freak gave her an interested look. "You are a curious human. I did not think you would be able to absorb this information with the calm you have, nor would I have thought you capable of understanding it."

"Well, I've been through a lot. I've learned to just accept that anything is possible, for the sake of my sanity if nothing else. Anyway, why did the Mothers wait so long to wake up? I mean, if this device was built before our people settled here, that means they've been here for a few centuries."

"They were waiting. Waiting for your kind's population to grow in number to birth a greater army. We do not gauge time the same as you do; what is years to you is like days to us."

"Okay, so what are we supposed to do with this device _if_ we're able to find it?"

"It must be destroyed. They will use it to call the others here, but when they are ready, they will use it to lure the enemy as well. We are hidden here from them; we could find an existance here, we could live and prosper, but the Mothers want revenge for being driven from their world and they will have it if we let them."

"Why are you against this?" Gen asked. "Their enemies are your enemies."

"No, our enemies are the Mothers, but very few of us have the intelligence to see that. We are being used by our own kind as expendable weapons to fight a war they started. We learned what we are to them when she started the purges."

"Purges?"

"Weeding out the weak. Any of our kind who show reluctance to fight or harbor any empathetic feelings for your kind are to be destroyed."

"So, _that's_ what we saw in Outlook Park! Why your kind were killing each other."

"Correct. We six have sheltered a number of the 'weak', hidden them away. Most are still young, not yet grown to potential. But in time, they may prove to be useful allies for your people. We share a great concern for what is left of your kind, and fear the consequences the war will have if it is brought here. We also share a great regret and sadness for the damage that has already been done. We did not know what we were doing until we had grown to see it and understand it."

"You were young and did what was in your nature to do. Live." There was a part of her that actually felt a degree of sympathy for them.

"Truly," the freak said. "And now it is crucial that your people be warned. She will come in two of your Earth days, perhaps sooner. We can only help your people against her if peace is made. Only one of you can do it. Your people will more than likely kill us on sight."

Gen sighed. "I guess it'll have to be me." She really wished Bernie had stayed behind to hear this; the man had a knack for playing peacekeeper.

"I could go," Mallorie spoke up. "It's just across the street, and all I would be doing is telling those people what this..._thing_ told us, right?"

Before Roman could even begin to protest, Gen said, "No way, Mallorie. I'm sure that's the last thing your husband wants and Niko would go fucking nuclear. He's already going to hit the roof when he finds out I let the thing talk rather than out-right killing it, especially when there's more than one. I'm never going to hear the end of this."

"You should at least take Jacob or Brucie with you," Roman insisted.

"No, he would want as much protection as possible for his family." She turned to the freaks. "You guys should probably leave. You don't want to be here when he shows up, believe me."

The lead freak nodded. "We wish to cause no trouble. We will stay in one of the vacant homes on this street. We will mark the door so you will know which one."

With that, the sextet of freaks departed.

* * *

Gen struggled over the fence surrounding the park, gritting her teeth at the pain in her shoulders. There was no one around but her. She had wondered before where most of the freaks were, but she knew now. At the airport, preparing to storm the park. She hoped the other six really intended to help, wondered what they could possibly do to help. Mostly, she wondered how she was supposed to get her kind to trust them.

Gen came to the recreation center's doors and knocked. "Hello? Open up!"

The doors swung open at her command and she faced two huge men with assault rifles.

"Well, well," one of them said. "We're fucking popular today."

"I need to speak with-"

"The man in charge?" Godzilla guessed. "I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're with that smartass Slav, the fag, and that quiet guy."

Gen got a dark, menacing look. "Call my friend a fag again and I'll rip your tiny nuts off."

The big man grinned. "Ooh, feisty. I like it."

"Are you going to let me in or not?"

"You got some important message to deliver, too?"

"Yes..." Gen looked profoundly impatient.

"You armed?"

"No, I'm wearing the latest fashion accessory," she replied, indicating her Glock, which was in plain sight.

Godzilla made a face. "Is smartassery a contagious disease now?" He held out a hand that was as big as her head. "Hand the gun over. No one goes in armed, unless they're one of us."

Frowning, Gen pulled the Glock from where it was tucked and gave it over.

"Follow me."

Godzilla led her through the recreation center to the boss' office door. He rose a hand to knock, but Gen ducked under his arm and burst through the door.

"Hey!" Godzilla objected.

Her friends and Connor were there, staring at her, along with a heavy-set, balding man. The latter stood from behind his desk, a surprised look on his rotund face. He put up a hand to still Godzilla when he came at Gen.

Gen recognized the man. "You're Jeremy Stone, the Deputy Commissioner of the LCPD."

"Huh, I thought you looked familiar," Niko said. The man who replaced Francis fucking McReary, after Niko had kindly put a rifle bullet between the asshole's eyes.

"I _was_," the man said. "Should I know you?"

"No," said Gen. "But I was a cop."

"Really? You look like a nurse." He indicated her clothes with a hand.

"Never mind that." She stepped over to the man's desk. "My friends here came to deliver a message to you. I've come to update it. A whole world of shit is going to drop on this place in a few days."

"What do you mean?" Jeremy asked.

So Gen explained everything the freak had told her. Afterward, the man dropped in his chair with a look of dismay. "I don't believe it..."

"Start believing it," Gen said. "You're running out of time. The freaks have no reason to make this up; they can't gain anything from it."

"Nothing but this device," Niko said with the suspicion that came natural to him. "Who is to say they don't want it for themselves?"

"Why would they? They don't want the other Mothers here anymore than we do, nor do they want what they intend to lure here when the time comes. They don't even want to be involved in their war."

"They might be lying about what this thing does."

"He makes a good point," Jeremy said.

"Look, forget about the damn device. That Mother is coming with her army of freaks, and you need to start preparing for it. You need to make peace with these six. They can help."

"How?"

"They claimed to have the power to do it."

"And I should just believe what they say? The ones who have been killing off our people?"

"Talk to them. Listen to what they have to offer, then you can decide for yourself what to believe."

Jeremy scratched his hawk-like nose as he considered this for several moments, then decided. "Okay, I'll do it; not really seeing any other choice here. Do you know where they are?"

"Yeah, they're still here-" She didn't get a chance to finish, thanks to Niko.

"You left them there with my family!?"

"Of course not. _Jesus!_ You think I'm that stupid?"

"Should I?"

She shot him the finger.

Niko looked mildly amused. "Cute."

Gen turned back to Jeremy. "As I was trying to say, they're still here. Over at a vacant house. They said they'd mark the door so I'd know where they were. I assume you want to meet with them now?"

"Yes. We'll conduct this meeting in the park, not inside. And I will only meet with one of them."

Gen nodded. "Good move. I'll retrieve one for you."

"Bernie, you should go with her," Niko insisted.

"Okay." He stood from the chair and joined Gen. "Shall we?"

"Sure."

Godzilla stomped along after them, and returned their weapons when they reached the front door. Bernie and Gen hurried across the park and vaulted the fence. The woman looked for the marked door and found it at the end of the street, at a house on the corner. They climbed the front steps and Gen rapped on the door.

The lead freak answered it.

"The man in charge agreed to speak with you. _Only_ you."

The freak smiled. "I expected as much, if he agreed. Where will this meeting take place and when?"

"At the park and now."

"Very well." He turned to the others of his kind, who were lounging around in the living room like they were human beings. He spoke some unintelligible language to them, then stepped out, closing the door.

The three of them headed back to the park where Jeremy now waited, standing between Godzilla and his equally enormous brother. With their arrival, Niko made his departure, heading back for Roman's house.

"Hey, don't you want to see how this goes?" Bernie called after him.

"No, I want nothing to do with it."

But he no longer had a choice in the matter.

Niko was the first to see them. A horde of freaks arriving from streets around the south end of the park, and no one was prepared for them.

"Oh, fuck."

* * *

**A/N:**

There you have it, a slow-moving chapter with a crap-load of dialogue. But the next one's gonna be _fuuuun_! Anyway, you may now expect updates on Fridays, or the weekend.


	16. Chapter 16: Waves of Rage

**Chapter Sixteen: Waves of Rage**

* * *

**G**en grabbed the pale-faced, stricken former Deputy Commissioner of the LCPD. "Get your people, everyone who's armed, anyone who can handle a gun. Send them out as you find them. There's no time to gather them together to form a plan, so we're going to have to play it by ear, God help us." She looked at Godzilla and his brother. "Both of you go with him. He's going to need help."

The two large men took hold of their unmoving leader and hurried off for the recreation center, trying to snap Jeremy out of his shock as they went.

"I will bring the others," the freak said, and then he too hurried off, vaulting the park fence and bolting across the street, moving with an odd, swift grace.

Gen faced Bernie. "Find a good vantage point to snipe from. Maybe the roof of the recreation center. There should be stairs to it. Focus your fire on the freaks. I have a feeling the Mother will show up last. Our six allies will have to deal with her."

Bernie nodded and raced to the building.

Gen glanced around for Niko, but the man was no where to be found. She guessed he'd gone back to the house, hopefully to bring more help. _God knows we're going to need it._

By now the horde of freaks were closing in on the park fence. A little over sixty of them, Gen counted. It seemed what the leader of the six had told her was true, that the Mother only expected to face a weak group of humans and needed no great force to rid herself of them. Gen had yet to see her, but she was there, she knew. Waiting for her soldiers to clear the way to her device, wherever the hell the damn thing was.

Doubts crept into her mind. She thought of the army that had failed to defeat them when all of this had started. She had to remind herself that they had faced thousands of freaks, tens of thousands, and two Mothers. And they hadn't had freak allies to aid them, nor had the army been underestimated by their enemies. Their fight had been hopeless, but maybe their's wasn't; maybe they could make the Mother regret ever underestimating a small group of humans.

Gen caught sight of the six freaks, hurrying through the street and over the park fence. She cast a glance to the south end again to see the horde doing the same, many of them pouring over the fence and racing across the lawn and park walks.

"Oh, God." They weren't ready; not a soul had come out of the recreation center yet.

"We will hold off as many as we can," the leader of the Six said. "But your people _must_ hurry!"

With that, the Six charged across the park, and as they approached the foremost freaks, they came to a stop. The Six stood still as stone as the others howled in rage and came on. Gen thought it was over already. _They're going to get torn to pieces!_

But as soon as the other freaks reached them, the howls of rage turned into screams of pain. They grabbed their heads, falling to their knees in agony.

Gen raced forward, her Glock poised to kill. A pistol against a horde. She tried not to think about that, nor the fact that she had only one magazine worth of ammo and it was the one already loaded in the gun.

She made the shots count, putting a bullet in the head of every freak writhing on the ground, allowing the Six to work on the next wave of enemies coming in.

"You need to find a way for the people to tell you six apart from the other freaks," Gen said to the leader as she put a bullet through another freak head. "Or you're all going to end up getting killed."

The leader smiled. Before her eyes, he began to glow faintly with an aura of red that matched his eyes. However he was doing it, it didn't take much effort, as he never paused in his attacks against their enemies. The other five followed their leader's example, their forms becoming outlined with that same red light.

"Will this suffice?"

Gen grinned. "Yeah, that'll work."

She fired down three freaks screaming in agony, then looked back toward the recreation center, wondering why the hell help hadn't arrived yet. It had. She spotted Bernie, and he wasn't alone. Jeremy and Connor were with him, both armed with rifles. All three were hunkered down near the edge of the roof.

"Don't shoot the ones glowing red!" she shouted to them. "Those are our allies!"

Bernie rose a hand of acknowledgment, then got down to business. He aimed his rifle out toward the horde, Jeremy and Connor following suit. Their rifles cracked like thunder, and the tops of two freak heads came off in a shower of black blood and brain. A third freak got clipped in the shoulder. Connor cursed loudly. There was another thundering crack. A bullet whizzed across the park, striking through that same freak's head.

"Got you that time, fucker!" Connor cried out.

"Hey! Feisty!"

It was Godzilla, armed to the teeth and pounding across the walk toward her. Behind him, Jeremy's people followed. Not many, but she could see others still coming out of the building.

Godzilla stopped in front of Gen, the people gathering behind him. Some looked downright terrified, others looked determined and ready for action. Godzilla slung an AK-47 off his shoulder and handed it over to Gen. "Thought you might need it." He pulled two extra magazines from one of the pockets of his cargo pants and put them in her hand.

"Thanks," Gen said, then she looked among the others. "Okay, people! Whatever you do, don't shoot the glowing freaks. Those are your friends. Spread the word to whoever you can. _We need them to stay alive; _they're the only ones who can deal with the Mother. Now let's show these blood-sucking freaks who they're fucking with!"

"Yeah!" Godzilla shouted. "Killing time!" The tank of a man sprinted off, bellowing some incomprehensible warcry as he fired his assault rifle, mowing down three.

The people rushed to the fore, and the park filled with the sounds of thundering gunfire, shouting, and screaming freaks. Gen followed, remembering the advantage they had over the enemy.

"The trees!" she shouted to anyone who would listen, forcing her voice over the chaos; hoping they would listen, praying they would listen. _Damn it, I should've thought of it sooner._ "Climb the trees! Height is your advantage!"

They were listening. A good number of them were boosting themselves up onto branches and limbs, and others had the sense to cover them until they were in position. The roles reversed; the people in the trees covered who they could until their comrades found a perch of their own.

Gen had a moment to think how amazing and strange it was how people could easily work together in harmony while in desperate straits, almost as if they could read each other's thoughts.

Someone grabbed her by the arm. Startled, Gen gasped and whirled around, ready to clobber the grabber with the stock of her AK. It was Niko, along with Jacob and Brucie. All three were armed with assault rifles.

The man's hand tightened on her arm. "You're injured; this is no place for you. Go back to the house before you get yourself killed."

"This is not the time, Niko. They need all the help they can get," Gen said, then looked at Brucie and Jacob. "Find a tree and climb it. Height is the advantage. Go to the east side of the park. Most of everyone else is on the west side. If we split our force, we'll divide the freaks, too. It'll be easier to kill them that way from a lofty position. Oh, and don't shoot the freaks glowing red. They're our allies."

Brucie looked skeptical. "A tree?"

"Do as she says," Niko said. "It may seem ridiculous, but it works."

The muscle-bound man and the Jamaican exchanged a look, shrugged, then split from their friend to find themselves a suitable perch on the east side of the park. Midway there, two freaks broke from the brunt of the chaos and charged at them. Jacob sensed them, spun around with his AK poised.

"Gwey, rassholes!" His gun popped a few times and one freak fell dead. Jacob danced backwards, training his gun on the other freak still coming at him. More pops sounded, but they weren't from his AK.

As the freak died in the grass with its head leaking brain and blood, Brucie laughed like a maniac and called from his place among the branches, "Jacob, get your ass up here!"

Jacob grinned up at him as he climbed onto the v-shaped tree trunk. "Righteous, me bredda! Ya gettin' wicked wit da AK."

"I was made for this shit, man!" Brucie cried out with adrenaline-infused enthusiasm. He aimed his assault rifle between two limbs and fired off a few shots toward the foremost line of freaks, taking at least one down. "Eat lead, motherfuckers!"

The next wave of freaks came through like a battering ram. The red-glowing Six abandoned their mind attacks and rushed into them, ripping into their own. From the recreation building came the constant sound of riflefire from Bernie and his snipers. Bullets zipped across the park, tearing through freak heads, dropping them like flies. More came from the trees, from pistols and assault rifles, some hitting their mark and others missing altogether. Gen noticed the less experienced were shooting into torsos and there were still quite a few people on the ground who needed to be up in the trees.

The woman raced deeper into the brunt of the battle, shouting commands to the inexperienced, "Go for the head! It's the only way to kill them!" Then she reiterated a former command to those who may not have heard it earlier, "The glowing ones are your allies! Don't shoot them!"

Niko followed, but kept a wide berth, firing on the freaks ahead of Gen to clear a path for her. As far as anyone in the park was concerned, she was their leader now; they were listening to her commands, placing their lives in her hands. It was strange as it was amazing to see. While he knew her to be aggressive and bold, he never thought her capable of commanding an army, small or otherwise. So far, she was doing a fine job of it. They hadn't lost a single person yet and the freak's numbers were starting to thin out, but he had a feeling the tide would turn once the Mother showed herself.

Gen fired her AK on a small group of freaks converging on two men, trying to ignore the aching throb in her shoulder and the moist warmth she felt sliding down her arm. She'd pulled the stitches out, she knew, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Two freaks died with holes in their heads and Niko took care of the others. As soon as the freaks went down, another handful replaced them.

"Get into a tree!" Gen called to the two men. "East side of the park! We'll cover you!"

Her's and Niko's bullets ripped through the group, giving the men safe passage to the east. As soon as they were up a tree together, Gen darted back across the park to herd more people to the east side and up to a perch, Niko aiding her every step of the way, her ever-present guardian angel.

She got a handful of people where she wanted them, Godzilla and his brother included among them, but a few got freaked, more than likely having some trick played on their minds. Screaming, wild-eyed, two men and a woman turned and bolted in the opposite direction, away from the chaos.

"Wait!" Gen called, rushing after them. She caught a man by the arm and whirled him around. "It's not real!"

"Let go!" he screamed in terror. "Let go of me!"

She shook him. "Get a grip! They're fucking with your head! It's not-"

The man struck her hard, the blow knocking her down. Freed, he fled, sobbing.

Her head ringing, Gen muttered a curse and sat up from the ground. _You'd think I would've learned the last time this happened_. She pulled herself up.

"Gen, stay down!" Niko shouted.

She threw herself back on the ground with another muttered curse. She turned her head to see four freaks rushing at her, their faces twisted up in rage. The bullets came so fast it looked as if they'd been shot simultaneously, but she was certain she'd heard two shots closeby. _How the hell did he do that?_ she wondered as the freaks collapsed together. No sooner were they dead, the other two followed after them to whatever afterlife freaks went to.

Niko pulled her up the moment a shriek cut through the din of war. Gen spotted a woman hanging from a branch by her arms. A freak had her by the leg, trying to rip her from the tree. Two more attempted to climb up it.

"Oh, for the love of..._shit_!"

She charged them, aiming her AK at the freak holding onto the woman. The bullet took him right through the temple. She panned to one in the tree. Her finger was just tightening on the trigger when she heard a loud crack and a bullet zipped by from behind her, striking through the freak's head, dropping him dead from the tree. Another loud, echoing crack and his comrade followed.

Bernie and his snipers again. That man had another big kiss coming to him when all this was over. Him _and_ Niko. She doubted she would have been able to help as many people as she had without either one of them. Or_ lived_ as long as she had.

Gen checked on the woman to see if she was injured. Her ankle was sprained, but the woman insisted on remaining there. When she was safely in the tree, Gen scanned the park and saw there was not a single human being left of the ground. They were all among the trees now, firing from them.

She tore across to the east side of the park to find her own perch.

Half way there, she paused, shaking her head. It felt strange; light and aching, but also like there were bees inside of it. _It was the blow, rattled my brains_, she told herself, and hoped she was right and that it wasn't a sign that she wasn't going to be able to keep this up. She'd taken on a lot of activity after losing a lot of blood.

Gen found an uninhabited elm tree, and as she made to climb it, she caught something yellow out of her peripheral vision. She turned around and it was her sister, Giselle.

It wasn't the blow she'd taken.

Her twin ran toward her with her arms held out to hug her, wearing a smile that was as bright as the yellow summer dress that clad her. That stupid, ugly yellow dress with the pale blue flowers. Gen had made fun of her for wearing it, as it had looked like something an old woman would wear. Giselle had loved the damn thing, but Giselle was dead.

Gen aimed the AK, aimed at her twin sister's head. _The dead don't come back to life._ She never got a chance to squeeze the trigger.

A pop sounded from somewhere behind her and Giselle's head jerked back, the bullet tearing through her forehead and exiting the back of her skull. She crumpled and then she was gone, a dead freak replacing her.

Gen turned.

Niko lowered his M-16, looking quite pleased with himself. "We are even."

Gen decided for sure then. That man was going to get kissed when all this over, whether he liked it or not. She smiled. "Yes, we are. Come on!"

Gen made her way up the elm tree, gritting her teeth at the pain in her shoulder. Niko slipped the strap of his M-16 over his own and climbed up after her. Once they were situated upon a sturdy branch, the man gave her bloody shoulder a grim, concerned look. "You've pulled the stitches out."

"I'm not surprised. It's fine," she assured him with a laugh. "Doesn't even hurt." It was a lie, but he didn't need to know that.

The lie turned out to be a wasted effort, anyway; she should've known he wasn't going to buy it. "Get out of here, Gen. There is time now."

"No, there isn't. And this isn't the time to argue about it, either."

She should've known he wouldn't give up easily, either. Damn his obstinate ways.

"Even if those freaks notice you leaving, I will protect you." He had made such a promise to Kate, but where he had failed her, he would not fail Gen.

"I know; you already proved that out there, but this is my fight as much as it is theirs. And yours. The fate of the world depends on _all_ of us." She smiled at him, that beautiful smile, as she tossed a spent mag and reloaded a fresh one into her AK. "So, shut your damn face. We got a world to save!"

* * *

The last wave of freaks roared across the shore of battle. There were not many left now, twenty at the most. But behind the wave, came the tsunami. The Mother approached, garbed in strange clothing made on another planet; black robes that shined and flowed like her oily black hair. Tall, she was, and willowy, almost seeming fragile, but there was some nameless power that surrounded her like an aura. She was a magnificent figure, strange and horrible.

The Six gathered as bullets flew around them, striking into the few freaks left in the park. The leader called out to their allies, "Do not attack the Mother! Leave her to us!"

The Mother sprang over the fence, her eyes a deep red, fire in their depths. Burning, an inferno of rage.

A tree went up in flames, then another and another. The people perched in them screamed, tumbled to the ground as they were burned alive. Others jumped down, tried to flee. Instead, they stopped, screamed, grabbed hold of their heads as if they were suffering the world's worst migraine. Then they turned on each other, still screaming, screaming for blood. Lead projectiles ripped through friends. None went for the Six.

No, the Six - the _traitors_ - were hers. She and the others had given life to them, and this was how they repaid them for that life. Turning against their own kind, allying themselves with the weaker species, _tools_. There was no greater insult.

_You will pay._ Her voice came into every mind in the park. _You will pay for your treachery._

The Six held their ground as she approached. _Young and foolish_, her voice came again. _You will not stop me. You are not strong enough._

Another tree caught fire. A man fell from it, rolling in the grass to put himself out. Bullets continued to fly across the park, west to east, east to west. Human against human. Several people lay dying or already dead. The world smelled of blood, of burning leaves and burning flesh.

The eyes of the Six glowed bright, and brighter. Red fire.

"Show her no mercy," their leader commanded.

He led the attack with some strange energy wave that shimmered in the air. The others put their own strength behind it as it rushed into the Mother, making her fall back a few steps.

She smiled, flashing the rows of her black, pointed, razor-sharp teeth. _Pathetic._ She returned the attack in kind. Powerful, unstoppable, it crashed into the Six, throwing them back several yards. That strange shimmer surged across the park, shaking trees down to their roots, the force throwing everyone off their perches.

Unharmed, the Six found their feet and regrouped. Three of the Six focused their wave attack in the ground beneath the Mother this time. The shimmering wave made the earth rumble, broke up the dirt under her feet. She stumbled, and the other three forced a strong energy swell into her, sending her flying back off her feet.

Still smiling, she gained her footing, flicked her black hair over a shoulder. Her eyes glowed a fierce red, pulsing like a heartbeat. She performed a similar attack in the ground, as if to prove to the others that she was the stronger. The entire world seemed to quake as her wave ran beneath the surface of the ground, chunks of dirt and concrete flying up and across the park, in the wake of its power. One of the Six was struck in the chest with a piece of concrete that had once been part of a park sidewalk, throwing him several yards back. The others flew through the air, two landing in the pool that surrounded the globe statue. Another struck a lamp post, knocking it over, and the other two were tossed past the recreation center.

Across the park a ways, Brucie sat up from the grass, rubbing at his shoulder where he'd fallen on it. "Fucking shit."

Nearby, Jacob groaned as he pushed himself to his knees. He shook his head, leaves falling out his dreads. "Me nah tink we gonna win dis one."

Brucie got to his feet and grabbed the Jamaican's arm to get him to his own. "Don't get all fucking negative mental attitude on me, Jacob. Badass motherfuckers like us gotta stay positive. We got this, man."

Jacob tsked. "Ya can't see when ya head inna clouds, bredda."

"My head ain't in no clouds, man. I'm fucking telling you how it's gonna go. And we're gonna put this red-eyed, freaky bitch in the ground. Then we're gonna throw the biggest fucking victory party ever. Booze and bitches, and not necessarily in that order. We're gonna save the fucking world, homie! Are you with me? _Are you fucking with me!?_"

"A'right, a'right," Jacob said in an effort to humor the man and perhaps calm him down. "Me wit ya, star."

"Fuck yeah! Let's do this!" Brucie turned and charged across the park. "Yo, Nicky! Where you at, bro!?"

They found him and Gen under a tree, sitting up from the ground and looking quite dazed. Once they were on their feet, the four of them glanced down the south end of the park where the Six were still struggling to overcome the Mother. She sent them flying yards across the park for the umpteenth time. One of the Six smashed into a tree and lay still on the ground for some moments.

"If they can't stop her," Niko said. "We are completely fucked."

"We need a plan," Brucie said. "Something real badass that'll gone down in history and make us fucking _legends_!"

"We're listening," Niko prompted.

Brucie hesitated. "Uh...shit, do I have to think of _everything_?"

Gen got a wild-eyed look. She had thought of something. "We have a secret weapon."

"We do?" Niko asked. "Then why didn't we use it before?"

"Because he was busy killing freaks, and the Mother hadn't shown up yet. Bernie. Bernie's going to save the world."

Brucie and Jacob gave her confused looks, but she was already rushing back toward the recreation center. She didn't get far. Another wave struck across the park, throwing everyone off their feet. Gen struggled to get back up.

"Gen, it's too late! She's coming!"

She glanced back. The Mother swept across the park. The Six were scattered around a ways behind her, trying to get back up.

There was time as long as she still drew breath. On her feet, Gen hurried to the building. Behind her, she could hear Niko yelling for the others to get out of the Mother's path before she made them all turn on each other.

"Bernie!" Gen shouted. "Take her down!" _He's a damn good shot. He can do this. He can end this._

Bernie aimed his rifle out toward the Mother. He grew still as a statue. Moments passed, but he wasn't shooting. Why wasn't he shooting?

"Bernie! Come on! You got this!"

His rifle changed directions. Bernie was aiming it at her. Two more rifles went up; Connor and Jeremy. And Gen knew they were under the Mother's control now. She tried to flee, knowing it would be pointless, knowing she was already dead. Two shots sounded off. There was surprisingly no pain, nothing. There was a shout from right behind her, "Bernie, _stop_!" Sudden impact knocked her forward off her feet the same moment she heard the crack of a rifle.

_No pain. There's no pain. Why is there no pain?_

She registered the dismayed shouts. Jacob and Brucie, calling a name, calling their friend's name. Niko. Then she realized there was no pain, because she had never gotten shot in the first place. Because he...

_God, no. He didn't._ But when she turned over, she saw him, laying in the grass near her, still. Her heart seized. She scrambled over to him. He was still alive, but for how much longer, she didn't know. He'd taken the rifle bullet to the chest, dead center. There was too much blood. Far too much. She put her hands over the wound, pressed down, trying to stop what she knew in her heart she couldn't. Niko groaned; it was all he was capable of. Every breath seemed to take effort.

Jacob and Brucie knelt beside her. Two of the Six stood over them, protecting them, trying to gain control over Bernie and Connor. Jeremy was laying on the roof. He had been shot, but he was still alive, moving.

Gen's eyes burned, blurred. _You fucking idiot_. She was sobbing. She looked around, for anyone. "Somebody help!" But who could help? Who could stop it, who here could heal what had been inflicted to kill? "God, somebody help him!"

Somebody moved beside her. A grey, veined hand fell upon hers. "Let me. I can save him."

But Gen found she couldn't move, too afraid if she took pressure off the wound he would bleed to death. Brucie grabbed her and dragged her away, allowing the leader of the Six to take her place. On her feet, Gen shoved the large man away from her. Fear and sorrow gave way to rage. Blinding, red, deadly.

Hands clenched into fists, Gen scanned the park, spotted the Mother beyond the recreation building, close to the Festival Towers. Gen charged after her, unthinking, weaponless but for a knife.

"Go," the leader of the Six ordered his own. "All of you. Use what she is feeling; you know what to do."

The five did as they were told, rushing off after the infuriated human.

The leader brought his wrist up to his mouth and tore into it with those black, pointed teeth.

"What the fuck are you doing, dude?" Brucie asked, gaping at the freak.

"There is healing properties in our blood," the freak explained as he held his bleeding wrist over the hole in Niko's chest. The man still clung to life, but was no longer conscious. Blood had pooled deep red under him, small rivulets running through the grass. His face had lost color with the loss of his blood. The freak pressed a sharp thumb nail deep into his own wound to keep it from closing, letting the black blood flow. "But I do not know if it will work on your kind."

"But you told her-"

"What she needed to hear."

"This better work, man. He's our friend, our _brother_. Fucking badass motherfucker like him can't die." Brucie's voice sounded funny, weak and strained. He blinked and turned away, rubbing at his eyes. "Shit. _Shit_, there's something in my fucking eye."

Jacob put a hand on his shoulder, gave it a pat, knowing damn well that there wasn't anything in his eye but tears shed for a friend whose life hung by a thin thread.

"Astonishing," the freak declared.

Jacob and Brucie leaned over him as he pushed up Niko's shirt. He ran fingers through the black and red blood that covered his skin, clearing it away. Underneath, the flesh was smooth, unmarred.

"It has healed him," the freak said.

"Thank fucking God!" Brucie cried, throwing his arms skyward. "I mean, of course it did. I never doubted it for a second."

Jacob gave him a dubious look, but chose to not mention the man's obvious uncertainty just moments ago. "He gonna be okay?" he asked the freak.

"The damage is reversed," the freak assured him. "But it will not restore the blood he has lost, and he has lost much. There is nothing more I can do. It is now up to your people."

"Oh, dear God, what have I done!?"

It was Bernie, arriving with Connor and Jeremy. Connor supported the heavy-set man, who had a hand over his bloody stomach, stark red running through his fingers. His face was as ashen as Niko's.

Bernie dropped his rifle, rushed over and fell to his knees beside his unconscious friend. His hands were clasped over his mouth, his face white as a sheet and shiny with tears. "I have killed him!" he bawled with sickening grief.

"Pull yourself together, man," Brucie said. "He ain't dead." He glanced over at Jeremy. "You got a doctor here? He's gonna need blood."

"An ER nurse," Jeremy said, weakly. "She will know what to do, and we've equipt her to take on most emergencies. But time is of the essence. He could go into shock at any moment. Get him inside."

Jacob and Brucie bent down to carry their friend into the recreation center.

"Shit, does anyone know his blood type?" Brucie asked.

"It doesn't matter," Connor said. "I'm O-negative, universal donor."

"You were shot," Jeremy reminded him. "You can't give blood."

"He only grazed me," Connor said, pulling his bleeding right arm forward a bit. "Lucky he got me before I got that shot off or he might have two holes in his chest."

Bernie looked up at him through tears. "You would help-"

"Yeah," Connor cut him off. "I guess I would, despite everything. He took a fucking bullet for her." He shrugged. "Guess I was wrong about the guy."

"You knew what was going on even when that bitch was controlling you?" Brucie asked.

"Yeah," Connor said, his face twisted with anger. "Couldn't control my own body, took on a life of its own, so to speak. It was like being trapped inside yourself; you're aware of what's happening, but you can't stop it. Fucking cruel as shit. I hope that fucking cunt gets ripped apart."

"Go inside," Jeremy told Connor. "Ask for Nurse Beth. Tell her the situation and she'll get things set up."

"What about you?"

"I'm not so grievously injured as he is. I'll live."

Bernie stood up and took Jeremy's arm, pulling it across his shoulders. "I will help you inside."

As they all went into the white building, the leader of the Six made his way across the park, where Gen and his friends had gone.

* * *

If they hadn't come into her mind, Gen wouldn't have even realized they were there with her as she raced through the park.

_You must stop_, one spoke to her. _You are not thinking. You will find your death if you do not stop._

Gen didn't care. The bitch was going to pay for what she'd done. If she had to die in the process, so be it. Justice would be dealt, justice for the countless lives that had been taken, justice for the countless lives that had been changed, ruined, and justice for her friend, who may die before the day was out.

_If you die like this, his sacrifice will be in vain. If he should die this day, allow his death to mean something. More than a life for a life. A life for a world, for what is left of your race. Stop. Let us help you._

Gen stopped. So did the Mother. She stood before the arena-like structure that had been built along side the park's Festival Towers, glancing down at something in her hand. Whatever it was, it gave off a bluish light.

The five freaks caught up to Gen, gathered behind her.

"She looks for the communication device," one of them said. "The device she holds, it reads the energy that flows in your world. The communication device must be here."

Gen turned to them, her eyes and face fierce as hellfire. "How are we going to do this? What's the plan?"

"You are angry."

"No, I'm fucking infuriated. She turned friend against friend. _My_ friends! And now one of them may die!"

"What you are feeling is good. Powerful. Useful. Allow us to use it."

"How?"

"Emotion is energy in motion. The energy is strongest in the deeper emotions, such as those you are feeling now. Anger, love. We can weaponize this energy and our own can strengthen it, but it will take all of us to do it and we must do it through you. We must control you."

"So, in other words, you're going to turn me into some kind of energy weapon?"

"Yes," the leader spoke as he arrived. "It will be dangerous for all of us. It will take all of our combined strength."

"Will it work?"

The leader smiled. "She will not expect it."

"But will it work?" Gen asked again with an irritated, impatient look.

"There is only one way to find out. This is our last chance, our only hope."

"Great." Gen sighed. "Before we do this, I have to know. Is he okay? Could you save him?"

The leader plastered a regretful look on his face. "I could not heal him. He will soon die," he lied, because he knew what it would do to her.

Her hands clenched, nails drawing blood in her palms. Her eyes were green fire. "Then so will she. Do what you have to do. Use me, even if it kills me. I don't care, so long as she fucking _dies_!"

"Then let us see if we can kill her."

With that, the seven of them headed to the outdoor arena where the Mother had gone. There were doors that opened up to the inside. Gen shoved through them, a woman on fire.

"_You_!" she shouted at the Mother, who she stood in the center of the arena. "You fucking bitch!"

The Mother turned to face her, her shiny black robes swirling around her long legs. Her equine features twisted with disgust. "Pathetic human. Have you come to die?"

Gen moved forward, but hands grabbed her, restrained her. "You're going to pay for what you've done! You took our world from us, you've taken countless lives, ruined countless lives! _You killed my friend_!"

The Mother looked amused. "I can easily reunite you with your friend." Her eyes were glowing.

"Now," the leader commanded. "Together."

And then Gen felt it. A gathering pressure everywhere inside her, mostly in her head. Building, stronger and stronger. Pain, it seared through her mind, but she had no voice to scream. She couldn't even move; she had no control over her own body. The world was getting bright, the colors surreal. Brighter and brighter. She could taste metal. The pressure ballooned. It was hot like fire, hot like the rage inside her. Burning, blazing. It wasn't pressure. It was energy. She could feel it now, everywhere inside her, in every cell, in her soul. It was her, it was them. And it burst out of her, filling her vision with white light. Gen found her voice, screaming as the pulsing rage funneled from her, screaming for humankind, screaming for her lost friend.

But she didn't scream alone.

The Mother screamed with her as that first burst of energy drove her across the arena. She slammed against a wall and wave after powerful energetic wave pinned her to it. Her screams turned into long, high-pitched shrieks as those bright, shimmering waves began ripping into her clothes, her flesh. The skin was flayed from her face, from her naked body. The muscle layer beneath began tearing away down to the bone. She fought, even in her agony, but it was of no use. The strength of the Six continued to power through Gen, harnessing her rage, weaponizing it, strengthening its energy. The waves went on and on and on, pulsing, destroying. The Mother's organs, bones, her skull, brain, all disintegrated like so much ash on the wind, until nothing of her existed but a horrible memory in the minds of the ones present.

The seven who remained collapsed as one. Weakened, none of them could move for the longest time. Gen stared up at the cloudless, blue sky. Sky that would not be seeing any alien visitors for now.

She was beyond exhausted, mentally and physically. And as her vision grew dim, a grey, veined face with red eyes hovered over her. The leader of the Six. "I believe now would an excellent time to mention I have lied to you about your friend. I was able to heal him. He lost a lot of blood, but your people are working on replacing it."

She was able to work up a small frown. "Asshole."

The freak blinked. "It was necessary you think him beyond saving. It made you stronger, stronger than I imagined."

"Dirty fucking...trick." Her eyes closed.

He smiled. "I hope this human knows how deeply you care for him."


	17. Chapter 17: Tension

**Chapter Seventeen: Tension**

* * *

**T**he recreation building had become a triage center. As the Six made their way across the lobby, their leader carrying an unconscious Gen, the uninjured rushed around them with not so much as a glance in their direction. Some supported wounded comrades while others ran to and fro with medical supplies to help who they could. The dead had been placed on one side of the lobby, their bodies covered respectfully with blankets. Mourners weeped openly over their fallen loved ones. Nineteen people had perished in the fight against the Mother and her army of freaks, but more were being added to the death toll as the grievously wounded could no longer cling to life.

On the opposite side of the lobby, the injured were being treated. Gunshot wounds were aplenty and there were a few burn victims, but there was not much the people could do with their lack of medical knowledge.

"Help them," the leader of the Six said to his comrades. "Our blood will heal their kind."

Without question, the others split up to aid where they could. Most wounded and uninjured alike were uneasy, uncertain and scared to let these aliens mingle their blood with their own, but in the end, it was either trust or death.

"Pardon," the leader said to a man rushing toward him, carrying an armload of bandages and bottles of rubbing alcohol. "I need..."

The man passed by without a pause or a word.

The leader tried his luck with a few more people, but they were all too preoccupied to give him time. He spotted Godzilla and his brother across the lobby, kneeling next to Jeremy where the man was laid out on a blanket. He didn't look well, though sometime or another, he had been hooked up to a unit of blood.

The leader made his way over to them and addressed Godzilla, "You, the large human."

The man looked up at him. "You talking to me?"

"Yes. It is crucial that this human you call Gen be placed in a quiet room to recuperate. She must not be disturbed. Her mind and body are very weak."

Jeremy's eyes fluttered open and he regarded the pale woman in the freak's arms for a moment. Then he looked at the freak. "Were you able to kill her...the Mother?"

"She is dead, but-"

Godzilla shot to his feet, grinning. "You hear that!?" he bellowed across the lobby. "The Mother is dead!"

A weak cheer went up. It wasn't really the time for celebration, but such news couldn't exactly be ignored, either.

"The immediate threat has passed," the freak went on. "But it is far from over. A Mother still remains in this city and we have not yet uncovered the communication device."

"I assume she knows it's here, as the othe one did," Jeremy said.

"I have no doubt. But should we find the device and destroy it, she is still a threat to your people. It is not at all impossible for her to create a new device."

"So, we're screwed all over again?"

"She knows," the freak said. "The moment the Mother here died, she would have known of it, felt it. It will be a cause of great concern for her. Your people were underestimated because they were small in number. She will try to uncover what strength you possessed to end the other. She will no doubt send scouts, but we will be watching."

"She and the rest of them are in Algonquin, and there's walls between us," Godzilla reminded him. "She can't send no scouts here."

The freak's brow bent. "Walls?" He scoffed. "Walls are nothing. You've seen what a Mother is capable of. She could easily blow them all down with hardly any effort; a single wave."

Godzilla cursed. "What the fuck are we supposed to do, then? We're weak now. We've lost a lot of people, and more are dying."

"We do nothing. She will not act so soon. She knows you are a threat now and she will use caution. This will give us time to prepare."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing."

"How did you kill her?" Jeremy asked. "The Mother."

"Love killed her."

Godzilla laughed. "Well, 'least you freaks got a sense of humor."

"I speak truly." The freak looked down at Gen. "Her friend's sacrifice was an act of love. Had he not made that sacrifice, she would have died and we would not have found what we needed in this woman to end the Mother. That sacrifice caused great rage in her and we were able to weaponize it, its energy, strengthening it with our own power. It tore through the Mother until her body began to disintegrate. Without the great love this woman bears for your species and especially for her friend, that rage would not have existed. You have these two to thank for your victory."

"I'll be damned," Godzilla said. "Something as simple as love..."

"No," Jeremy said. "Hate is simple; it's easy to hate. Love is complex, complicated, a mystery. It's a hard thing to understand, a hard thing to feel. Half the time you think you love someone when you really don't. Other times you think you hate the person you really love. Only a rare few every truly _know_ it and half of them are scared to death of it. It may be clichéd, but it really is like that whole Cupid-shooting-you-with-his-arrow thing. Love hits you suddenly, out of nowhere, but you damn well know it when it happens." He smiled. "Then you're doomed."

The freak gave him a respectable look. "You are a wise human."

"I'm one of the rare few. I've been married three times. That chubby little bastard grazed me twice with those arrows. His aim improved the third time around, got me right through the heart." Jeremy looked mournful. "Fifteen wonderful years with that woman. Then the cancer took her." He shook his head, cleared his throat. "Anyway. Eric, find a room for Gen. My office should do; she won't be disturbed there. Make her as comfortable as possible."

"You got it, boss," Godzilla said. He turned to the freak. "Come with me."

The large man led him through the room with the drained pool and down a hallway to Jeremy's office. He opened the door and stood aside to let the freak go in first. Eric stepped over to a supplies closet and pulled out a cot Jeremy had used to sleep on. He set it up in the middle of the room, grabbed a blanket and pillow from the closet and made the cot as comfortable for Gen as it was going to get. The freak placed the unconscious woman gently upon it and Eric draped a blanket over her.

"She's gonna be okay?"

"I believe so. It will take time to recover the energy she lost," the freak said. "She will be in this state for a few days. If it is no trouble, I wish to be taken to her friends. I'm sure they would like to know how she is, and of this victory."

Eric nodded. "No trouble. Let's go."

They stepped out of the office, Eric shutting the door quietly behind them.

"We got her friend in another room, to give Beth room to work on him. She's our medical professional 'round here. Damn good at her job," the large man explained as they walked back to the lobby. "Got a lot of energy for her age."

"You were able to save him?"

He shrugged. "Last I checked, the man was in deep shit but still alive. That was a while ago. Don't know what's happened between then and now." Eric gave him a look as they crossed the lobby, the chaos there still raging around them. "You really healed him...with your blood?"

"Yes, though I was not certain it would work at first. My people are now working on healing your wounded."

"You know, for a bunch of alien freaks, you're all right."

"...I assume that is meant to be a compliment?"

Eric grinned. "As close as I'm gonna get to one."

They exited the lobby, coming to a long hallway lined with doors. At the end of that hall, they found Bernie, Jacob and Brucie. Bernie was crying as Jacob tried to console him. Brucie was pacing up a storm.

"What happened?" Eric asked as he and the freak approached.

"That fucking nurse won't let us in there!" Brucie raged as he continued to pace. "Barricaded the door! She's been in there forever, man. Too fucking long." He gritted his teeth, turned, and drove his fist into a wall. "Our friend might be dead, and she won't fucking tell us anything!"

"Rest, star," Jacob said. "Nah good getting vexed, seen?"

Brucie turned on him. "How can you be so fucking calm!?"

"She take a long time, like ya mention. Ya nah take a long time on da dead, star."

"He's right," Eric, the human version of Godzilla said. "If your friend was dead, she would've been out to tell you already."

And as if on cue, they all heard a rustling noise coming from beyond the door they stood near, then it opened. Beth was an older woman, short and stocky. Her salt-and-pepper hair was pulled back from her aged, matronly face and up into a messy bun that perched high upon her head. Gentle blue eyes regarded the men from behind large, round, silver-framed spectacles. She wore a simple blue blouse, jeans, and white tennis shoes.

Brucie crowded her there before she could speak. "Well? _Well!?_"

The woman stared at him, brows raised. She took a cautious step back. "He went into hypovolemic shock-"

"What the hell does that mean? Is it bad?"

"It's when there is excessive fluid or blood loss which causes the heart to be unable to pump the necessary blood to the body. It's a very serious medical emergency, and can prove fatal if not treated in time. There are four stages of hypovlemic shock. Stage one and two are survivable, stage three has a low survival rate and four is fatal. Your friend was stage two, but began showing symptoms of stage three. I gave him saline to compensate somewhat for the blood loss, oxygen, and elevated his legs to increase circulation. That bought me some time to get Connor's blood. Your friend is receiving it now. By my estimation, he lost two and a half to three pints in a short period of time. The bullet must have hit an artery. If the wound hadn't been healed when it had, he would've bled to death. I assume it was a through-and-through wound?"

"It was," Bernie said, sniffling. "A bullet from a high-powered rifle and shot at a pretty close range."

Nurse Beth nodded. "That's good news, then. If the bullet was still in when the wound was healed, it likely would have caused all kinds of trouble for him."

"The crazy motherfucker's gonna be okay, right?" Brucie asked.

"It's hard to say right now. He'll receive two units of blood. He needs more, but I'm unable to provide it."

"Why the fuck not?" Brucie demanded.

"Standard blood donation is one unit - a pint. Taking more would put the health of his donors at risk. He's extremely fortunate we were able to find another universal donor. I'm not comfortable with leaving him short of blood, but there's nothing else I can do. Half the people here don't know their blood type, we don't know his, and we don't have the equipment to test for blood types. Nevertheless, two units should suffice. The transfusion will take anywhere from one and a half to two hours, but the next hour is going to be very crucial in determining his recovery. Normally, transfusions are a simple procedure, but we're in an unsterile environment, so there are risks like bacteria forming in the blood. I will be keeping a very close eye on him."

"Your friend's in good hands," Eric assured.

"Is he awake?" Bernie asked.

"Not yet," Nurse Beth answered. "His loss of consciousness had me very concerned when he was brought in. It's a symptom of stage four hypovolemia. However, after checking his vitals, his heart rate and blood pressure weren't symptomatic of that stage, so I assume it was the pain, or a combination of pain and stress from the onset of hypovolemia that caused him to lose consciousness. He should wake up any time now."

"Can we stay with him?" Bernie pleaded.

"I insist that you do," Beth replied, a soft smile on her face. "When he wakes up, he's going to be very weak, confused, and agitated. He doesn't need the added stress of an alien environment and strange faces. Seeing people he knows will be good for him. Just don't say anything or do anything that might upset him." She stood away from the door. "Go on in."

Bernie hurried inside, straight to his friend's bedside. The room was set up with many cots, a few patients recovering on them. Connor was sitting up on one, eating a granola bar and sipping from a juice box.

The unit of his blood hung from a hook that had been hammered into the wall above Niko's cot. A woman stood there, squeezing the bag periodically. A blood-filled IV line ran from the bag into Niko's arm. Laying there on a cot, covered with blankets, the man looked pale and fragile and helpless; an entirely different person.

Bernie burst into tears, falling into the chair beside the cot. He touched his friend's hand, a light, gentle touch, as if he feared Niko might shatter. "Oh, God, I am so sorry."

A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. "Come on, man," Brucie said with an oddly gentle tone. "Pull yourself together. He can't wake up to you weeping over him like this or he's gonna think he's fucking dying."

"I can't help it!" Bernie wailed. "I almost killed my friend!"

Beth stood on the other side of the cot, checking Niko's heart rate by the pulse point at his wrist. Then she turned to a nearby table to jot something on the notepad that was placed on it. When she finished, she glanced over at Bernie. "He's right. Your grief is understandable, but this is the kind of stress your friend doesn't need to wake up to."

"Go get Roman," Brucie suggested to the distraught man. "He needs to know what happened and you know he'll want to be here for his cousin."

Bernie nodded and stood from the chair, wiping tears off his face.

"I will accompany you," the freak said. "If there are more of my kind present on the streets, your mind is too weak to notice them or deal with them."

"Yes," Bernie snapped. "I am quite aware of how _weak_ my mind is when my friend is lying here on what might still be his deathbed, because of _me_. I don't need a reminder!"

The freak blinked. "I meant no offense. I was only concerned for your well-being."

"My well-being is just fine!" Bernie sobbed. "I should be the one lying there."

"Your friend would not blame you for what happened, and he would not want you to blame yourself, either."

"You don't even know him."

"I have been in his mind before; I know how it works."

* * *

The two headed across the park. It looked exactly like what it was, the remnants of a battleground. The walks and earth were torn up from the Six's fight with the Mother, trees had been uprooted and a few were still smoking from when they were set ablaze. A few artistic statues had been decapitated, others had resorted to crumbled stone. Freak corpses were strewn across the south end of the park, but it seemed the people had gathered up all of their own dead; there were no human corpses to be seen.

"It is over?" Bernie asked. "We won?"

"This battle, yes," the freak said. "You have your friends to thank for this victory, Gen and Niko. The Mother is dead, but the threat is not yet over. As I mentioned to your people earlier, there is still a Mother left in this city. As long as she lives, your people remain in danger."

In his sorrow, Bernie had forgotten about Gen; they all had. "Oh, _no_. Gen...I saw her running off earlier, running off after that Mother. She was unarmed. I have not seen her since. Is she...did she...?" He couldn't bring himself to say the word. Tears threatened his eyes for the umpteenth time.

"The woman lives. She is resting. The fight with the Mother took an extreme toll on her. She will be resting for a few days."

"But she's going to be okay?"

"I believe so."

"Thank God for that."

They climbed the steps to the front door of Roman's house. Bernie opened it and stepped inside to find the living room and kitchen empty.

"Roman! Where are you!? It's Bernie!"

There was nothing but silence for a moment, then there was a noise coming from beyond the door to the basement. The handle rattled, then the door opened. Roman stood at the top of the basement stairs, a crutch and his wife supporting him.

"What is going on?" Roman asked. "Is it over?"

"Yes," Bernie replied. "We defeated her and her army, but-"

"This is wonderful news!" Roman interrupted, grinning. "We heard the all the gunfire and shouting even from the basement, and the ground was shaking. We thought the world was going to end."

"It will not end any time soon," the freak assured him. "But the threat is not over and we still have not found the device."

"If you were able to kill one of those Mothers, you will be able to find this device, too. But now is the time for celebration. The world has been saved! Where is everyone?"

"At the recreation center," Bernie said. "But Roman, there is-"

"Then let's go! I want to see my cousin."

Bernie looked grave and guilt-ridden. "There is something I have to tell you first."

Roman knew that look and that tone. They were things usually present right before a person was told of the death of a loved one. The grin was gone. Blood drained from his face. "Oh, Jesus. What has happened to him?"

"I...I shot him," Bernie confessed.

"_Dios mío_," Mallorie gasped, a hand coming over her mouth.

Roman gaped at Bernie for a long time, then he looked like he was going to attack him. "You did _what!?_ You...You fucking _asshole_! You piece of shit! He has always been your friend, he has always looked out for you!"

Bernie flinched and stammered for words.

"Roman, calm down," Mallorie said. "It had to be an accident. You know Bernie would never hurt him on purpose."

"What the fuck happened!?" Roman demanded.

"I-I-I had no control. One minute I was aiming my rifle at the Mother, the next I was aiming it at Gen. I knew what was happening, but that...that _horrible_ _bitch_ had control over me. I couldn't stop it. I was going to shoot Gen, and Niko...he pushed her down right as I fired."

"Oh, my fucking God."

Bernie made a gesture at the freak. "He was able to heal him, but Niko lost a lot of blood, went into hypo...hypoval...shock. He went into shock. There is a nurse at the recreation center who is seeing to him now, giving him blood."

"Tell me he is going to be okay." Roman's voice broke. Tears stood in his eyes. "He _has_ to be okay."

"She doesn't know yet, but we should know something within the hour."

Roman rubbed at his face. "Jesus. I can't believe this. That cousin of mine...sometimes I do _not_ fucking understand him. I thought he could not stand this woman, now you tell me he took a bullet for her."

"Things are not always as they seem," the freak said. "This is especially true of your species."

"Anymore bad news I should know about?" Roman asked, scowling.

"No," Bernie answered. "Everyone else is okay."

"Good. That is good. Take me to my cousin, Bernie."

* * *

It was like coming out of a coma all over again. The first thing Niko became aware of was the profound weakness in his body. He couldn't move, and part of him didn't even want to. He felt dizzy, even with his eyes closed. When he opened them, the world was a blur that slowly came into focus. There was no pain, he realized. He remembered getting shot. There hadn't been any pain then, either. Not at first. It came moments after the bullet had struck him, tremendous pain. He could recall how it felt, like some enormous weight bore down on his chest, and a deep, searing throb inside of it. He remembered how difficult it had been to breathe, remembered the tang of blood in his mouth. That was all he remembered.

But why the hell didn't he feel any pain now? There was nothing, not even a twinge of it.

_I'm dying_, he decided. _Maybe I'm already dead._

"Hey, he's awake," said a voice that sounded like Brucie.

The man's face came into view. It was split with a grin. "Welcome back to the land of the living, you crazy motherfucker."

Then Jacob's face joined beside Brucie's. "Ya scared us someting wicked, me bredda."

He tried to speak, but he felt like he had a mouth full of sand. And there was something over it. An oxygen mask. Niko willed his arm to move, to remove that mask; it was in the way and he needed to speak. The arm felt heavy as an anchor.

"Keep him from moving that arm," came a woman's sharp voice. "Or he's going to pull that IV line out."

It was not a voice he recognized, not the voice he wanted to hear, _needed_ to hear. Where was she?

He felt pressure on his right arm - Brucie holding it down. That was fine, he'd been born with two. Niko willed the other one to move and after some great effort, was able to get it lifted to his face. He pawed the mask off. An unfamiliar woman hovered over his left side, pushing his hand down.

"Don't fuss," she told him, putting the oxygen mask back over his mouth.

There went all that effort to get it off. Niko glared at her. _Damn you_.

"You're not well. You lost a lot of blood," the woman said. "You have to relax, lie still so I can get you better."

Fuck that. He couldn't speak with that stupid mask over his face, and he needed to see his friend; he needed to know she was okay. _Where the hell is she? Someone tell me._

But his present friends couldn't read his mind.

Then the horrid thoughts came. Had he failed to protect her, as he had failed Kate? Had she gotten shot in the end? Was she dead; was that why she wasn't there, why no one would fucking tell him anything?

The moment the woman moved away from his side, Niko got the mask off again. His mouth and throat felt like a desert, but he was able to get the words out, "Where is Gen?" He struggled to sit up.

"Whoa," Brucie said. "Relax, man."

"Tell me."

The woman was there again, pressing him back. It was easy to subdue him; he was weak as an infant. There was a scolding look on her face. "If you can't be still, I _will_ restrain you. You're putting your health at greater risk."

"Fuck you!" he snapped at her, trying feebly to fight her off. "Get your fucking hands off me."

"Niko," Brucie spoke. "You seriously need to chill, bro. This ain't good for you."

"Why won't you tell me?" he demanded. The woman tried to put the oxygen mask back in place, but Niko knocked her hand away with surprising strength. "Is she dead? _Tell me!_"

"That does it!" the woman declared with angry frustration. She marched off through the door.

"We don't know, man," Brucie replied to Niko's question. "Ain't seen her since she went running off after that Mother."

"_What?_"

"After you got shot, she was fucking pissed, man. Ran off after that bitch."

And now _he_ was pissed. "And you fucking _let_ her?"

Brucie shrugged. "We didn't exactly have a choice, homie. We thought you were going to die. Me and Jacob had to carry you inside."

"And you are still here," Niko growled. He was _boiling_ inside. "When you should be out there finding her, doing _something_."

"Look, man," Brucie said. "Don't get me wrong, but we hardly know her. _You're_ our friend, and-"

"And she is mine! And you left her to _die_!" A strong wave of vertigo struck him. He shut his eyes as if it might help ease it. It didn't.

Jacob touched his arm. "Ya need fi rest, bredda. Me go look fa ya gyal."

Niko could only muster a weak nod and a grateful look. Even without the presence of pain, he felt like complete shit run over by a train.

The Jamaican exited the room as Nurse Beth returned with a length of rope. She stomped over with a threatening look on her face. "Do I have to use this?"

Niko shook his head.

The woman dropped the rope beside the cot. "Good." She checked his heart rate again, looking at her wrist watch. "Oh, _damn it to hell_, your heart rate is too fast." She shot Brucie that stern look, like a mother about to scold a misbehaving child. "You, get out of here."

"Huh? Why?"

"I thought having friends around would be good for him. It's caused nothing but trouble. Go on. I'll let you know when you can come back."

"But-" Brucie tried to object.

"Get out, or I'll have you dragged out. You may be big, but I know two men who are a lot bigger. They'll have no trouble with you."

"Okay, lady. Shit." He rose from the chair and looked down at his friend. Brucie's face went uncharacteristically serious. "Take it easy, Nicky. I don't wanna go to your funeral; none of us do."

When Brucie exited the room, the woman took his seat and checked to make sure the IV line was still in place, then she glanced up at the blood bag still being squeezed every so often by her helper. The bag was still half full.

She looked at Niko, pushing her glasses up her nose. "When you were brought in, they told me what you did for your friend. It was a very brave and foolish and selfless thing to do. I know you're worried about her, but you need to start worrying about yourself now. You're in a bad place; your body is unable to handle a lot of stress. If you don't rest and stay calm, you are going to die. Seeing you awake and talking has given your friends hope that you're going to be okay. Do you want to take that away from them?"

"No." He sounded annoyed. Here he was in shitty condition, being lectured and guilted. The woman needed to work on her bedside manner.

"Then behave yourself." She reached over to put the oxygen mask in place, giving him a scowl. "If you remove it again, I'm tying you down."

Niko had no intention of removing it again, mostly because he lacked the strength to do so. Just that brief conversation with Brucie had taxed him.

As the woman moved away from his side, Niko closed his eyes, and he dreamt of his friend.

* * *

Brucie saw the group coming down the hall, Roman ahead of them and moving as fast as his crutches would allow. Sweating, huffing and puffing, he made it to Brucie without taking a nasty spill.

"How is he?" Roman asked between gulps for air.

Brucie shrugged. "Woke up a while ago. Talked. Then he got pissed off and that fucking nurse kicked me out of the room."

Roman scowled. "You pissed him off? You pissed him off when he is in bad condition!?"

"No, man. I mean, I wasn't _trying_ to piss him off. He kept asking questions about that chick, where she was. So I told him what I knew and he fucking freaked out. Does anyone even know where the hell she is?"

"She is alive," the freak said. "The Mother is dead. The fight with her took a toll on the woman. She will be resting for a few days."

"Hold the fuck up," Brucie said. "You're telling me _she_ killed that bitch? How? She wasn't even armed!"

"Her weapon was one that could not be seen, only felt. We were able to weaponize her emotions, the rage inside her, backing it with our own power. It was enough to destroy the Mother."

"Holy shit," Brucie said. "That's fucking weird and awesome at the same time!"

"Thank God she is still alive," Mallorie said.

"Yeah," Brucie agreed. "I'd feel sorry for the poor bastard who'd have to tell Nicky she was dead. It sure as shit wasn't gonna be me. He already looked like he was gonna kill me for not going after her when she chased that bitch of a Mother."

"Can we go see him?" Roman asked.

"No, that nurse ain't letting nobody in there now."

"Thanks a lot, Brucie!"

The large, tattoed man made a face. "What the fuck, man? Is it Blame-Brucie-For-Everything Day or something? Shit."

Roman sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I am just worried."

"He's awake and talking at least." Brucie clapped him on the shoulder. "You know he's tough as shit, fucking _genetically superior_. Probably gonna outlive all of us. He'll be up blasting off freak heads in no time."

"I hope you are right."

Brucie grinned. "I _know_ I'm right."

The group continued to wait out there in the hall, as there was nothing else they _could_ do. The children were playing, racing each other up and down the hallway, Mallorie keeping an ever watchful eye on them. Eve and Katie had known each other for no more than a few hours, and they were already thick as thieves; their age gap had no bearing on their blossoming friendship.

Bernie sat alone in a corner, morose and brooding. Jacob returned some time during the waiting, informing the others what he'd found out about Gen. Brucie told him they already knew from the freak. Jacob looked annoyed with being sent on a pointless errand, but nevertheless said nothing.

Some moments later, a man strolled through the hall, entered the room, and never came back out.

An hour crept by, and at last the door to the room opened. Beth stepped out. She was smiling.

The others gathered around her, expectant, eager, hopeful.

"It's good news," the nurse declared. "He responded well to the first unit of blood. His heart rate and BP are stable. He's receiving the second unit now. As I mentioned earlier, he'll be short close to a pint of blood, but his body will recover it naturally over time."

"How long will that take?" Roman asked.

"Two to three months, but it isn't as bad as it sounds. He'll feel weak and dizzy for a day or two, but after that the symptoms should go away. He should not take on any strenuous activity for at least a week, however, to be on the safe side."

"I would like to see him."

"Of course. You can visit with him..." There was her stern look again. "One at a time, though and only for a few minutes. He needs rest and I don't want him getting upset again."

Roman hobbled into the room, Beth following and shutting the door behind them. She helped the man over to the chair beside Niko's cot. Niko himself was awake again, propped up a bit on a pillow. He was still a bit pale, but his face had found some color.

"My cousin," Roman greeted him, smiling with both affection and exasperation. "You certainly know how to scare the shit out of everyone."

Beth reached over to take the oxygen mask off so Niko could speak freely with him.

"I'm sorry I scared you, but I'm not sorry for what I did."

"I know. She is okay. They have her resting in another room."

The man closed his eyes for a moment, overwhelmed with relief. "Thank God. Was she hurt?"

"Not as you might think. That freak, the one that leads the other five, explained to us what happened. They used her as a weapon against the Mother."

Niko's eyes opened. There was fire in them. "They..._what!?_"

Roman put a hand on his. "Calm down. He said they were able to weaponize her anger; I don't really understand it, but Gen and those freaks were able to kill the Mother. I guess it must have drained Gen. It's over, Niko. For now, anyway. And she is going to be okay."

That eased him a little, but he still did not like the fact that those freaks had used his friend in such a way. Once he was able to get out this damn cot, he was going to make sure they knew _exactly_ what he thought about it.

Roman gave him a long, searching look. "How long have you been in love with this woman?"

Niko shifted a bit, uneasily. "Uh...I'm not."

Roman found that amusing. "Oh, no? You have a funny way of showing it, diving in front of bullet for her."

"I didn't dive in front of it. And it wasn't my intention to take that bullet. I was trying to get her out of its path."

"You knew you were going to get shot; you _had_ to know."

He had known a lot of things. That moment had been one of crystal clarity. Yet he was still struggling to come to terms with all the epiphanies that had rained down on him. "Maybe."

"Does she feel the same way about you?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"I would think you could tell; I would think you would want to find out."

"No," Niko said with a grim tone. "I don't want to know."

"This is a good thing, Niko. A good thing for you. You need this."

"No, Roman, it's a bad thing. You have no idea how bad it is."

"Why? Because you are still hung up on someone who has been dead for four years? You need to move on. Your heart is telling you to. It's time to listen."

"It has nothing to do with Kate."

"Then what?"

Niko gave him a stubborn look. "It's complicated."

Roman rolled his eyes. "Oh, here we go. Do you ever think it's complicated because _you_ make it that way?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I know it's me; it's _always_ me. My past, who I was, the things I did, _that_ is what complicates things."

"What are you talking about?"

"I killed someone she loved. Now do you understand?"

Roman's eyes widened. "Oh, Jesus."

Silence.

Then, "You have to tell her."

"No, I don't."

"If you care for this woman like I know you do, you have to. You took someone from her, Niko. You owe her the truth; she deserves the truth."

"It's better that she doesn't know, better that we part ways."

"It is not better if you are throwing away a chance at both of you being happy."

He scoffed. "What chance, Roman? I don't know how she feels about me, and even if she did feel something, she will want nothing to do with me when she finds out what I did."

"Maybe she won't, but if she does have feelings for you, she may forgive you."

"Only if she is an idiot."

"It is her choice, not yours. In your life, how many choices were taken from you, Niko? You are doing to her what all those assholes you used to work for did to you; you _know_ it's not right. She doesn't know who killed this person she loved. Telling her will give her the choice to forgive; it is closure. Don't you think she deserves that, as you did?"

Niko knew he was right. God help him, he knew, but he was scared. Terrified. He sighed; it was heavy and miserable. "I hate this. I really fucking hate this."

Roman patted him on the arm. "I know, cousin. Sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest thing to do."

* * *

_Two days later..._

Gen awoke alone in a familiar office. Jeremy's office. She struggled to rise from the cot, as her body was still weak, but her mind was clear as glass. She felt incredible and horrible at the same time.

Finally able to get into a sitting position, she looked around the moonlit room and noticed someone had left her a change of clothes on Jeremy's desk. She immediately undressed, and noticed the lack of pain in her shoulder. Gen lifted her hand to the bite, but felt only smooth skin. There was nothing; no stitches, no wound, no scar. Perhaps the leader of the Six had healed it while she'd been asleep.

Dressed, Gen stepped out of the office, made her way through the pool room and into the lobby. She found Godzilla and his brother guarding the front doors to the building. They were the only ones around. Gen assumed those who'd survived the battle had either gone to bed or were recovering from their injuries.

Gen approached the men. She needed to see her friend, needed to know he was okay, and they had to know where he was.

"There she is!" Godzilla greeted her. "The lady who saved the day. Shit, saved the fucking _world_! It's good to see you up and about. How you feeling?"

"Still a little weak," Gen answered. "Thanks for asking. How long have I been out?"

"A couple of days."

"Were you guys able to find that communication device?"

"Still digging for it. Those six freaks have been helping, so we've been getting more ground uncovered than we would have."

"That's good. I'll be glad to lend a hand."

"Don't worry about it. You've done enough; heroes deserve a vacation once they've saved the world. So take it, go spend it with that friend of yours. He's been asking about you."

"He's okay?"

Godzilla nodded. "Doing good. Beth's gonna release him from her care in the morning."

"Beth?"

"Yeah, our resident nurse. You got her to thank for helping keep your friend alive."

Gen smiled. "I will be sure to thank her. Repeatedly. Where-"

"Down that hall, last door on the left," Godzilla said, pointing it out to her with a grin. "By the way, Jeremy wants to speak with you soon."

"About what?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Said it was important though, but that it could wait until you've got time. No rush."

Gen nodded, then made her way down the hall Godzilla had indicated and found the last room on the left. She opened it and stepped inside a room lit with a single oil lamp sitting on a table. He sat on the edge of a cot near that table, watching the imprisoned lamp flame flicker.

Her heart quickened. Godzilla may have told her he was okay, but seeing it for herself, seeing him there, healthy and alive...how could her heart _not_ quicken?

When Niko looked at her, he rose from the cot.

Words failed them. They stood there for a long time, staring at each other. There was something else in the room with them. Tension. That was nothing new, but only now did they both realize what the tension was, where it came from, what it meant.

Gen may have not known what to say, but she knew what she wanted to do. She crossed the room toward him.

When she came into the lamp's glow and he saw the intensity on her face and in her eyes, Niko knew what she meant to do, and he knew he should stop her, but he was powerless to stop himself.

He reached out when she was near, dragging her against him. She rose up on her toes, her arms moving under his, snaking around him. Then they were kissing for the first time, yet as if they never would again. It was deep and torrid. It made him dizzy. It made her knees weak. Hands felt around blindly; touched, caressed, explored. She moaned, the sound vibrating against his mouth, then she was pressing harder against him, pressing him back. Further and further until he felt the cot nudge the back of his legs.

She wanted more than a kiss. So did he, but they could not have more. They had gone too far already.

Niko found strength to end it, breaking away from her. It took him a moment to find his voice. "We can't do this."

Her eyes stayed on his. She caressed his face with the back of her fingers. "Yes, we can. I want you, need you..." Her lips brushed against his as she spoke. "I'm in love with you. It took you almost dying for me to realize it."

And it took great effort from him to move away from her, to put distance between them. "You shouldn't be."

Gen sat on the edge of the cot, watching him, understanding. A pained look came upon her face, but he was too busy not looking at her to notice. "You don't feel the same."

"I do. Do you think I would have taken that bullet for you if I didn't?" Niko swallowed, shook his head. "We _can't_, Gen."

"Why?"

He finally looked at her, and in all the time Gen had known him, she had never seen him look so grave and torn up. "Because there is something I have been keeping from you."


End file.
